The Lookout Blog

It’s No Game—Tap Snake is a Spy App for the Phone

The Threat: Last week, a new spy app was identified in the Android Market that enables a would-be spy to track a phone’s location through a game called Tap Snake. Lookout has protected against this threat since August 10th. Today the app was removed from the Android Market.

How it Works: To the victim, Tap Snake looks like a clone of the Snake game. However, once someone installs this app on a phone, the “game” serves as a front for a spy app that proceeds to run in the background, secretly reporting GPS coordinates back to a server. The would-be spy then pays for and downloads an app called GPS Spy and enters an email address and code to  gain access to the victim’s uploaded data.

GPS Spy costs $4.99 and until today could be purchased through the Android Market or other Android stores. Once on the phone, the application instructs the purchaser to download and install the Tap Snake game to the phone they want to spy on. The would-be spy does need to have physical access to the phone they want to monitor.

Phones it Affects: Tap Snake is only available for Android phones.

How to Tell if You Are Affected: Look to see if you have the Tap Snake game on your phone. If it is on your phone, you can download a mobile security app to remove the software.

How to Stay Safe:

• Don’t let others download apps onto your phone. Keep in mind, a would-be spy needs physical access to your phone in order to install Tap Snake and enter the code that enables tracking.
• Don’t let your phone out of your sight and keep control of your phone at all times.
• Download a mobile security app for your phone that scans every app on your phone.   We’re partial to Lookout.

Lookout has protected against Tap Snake since August 10th. If you already have Lookout on your phone, you don’t need to do anything–you are automatically protected. If you don’t yet have Lookout on your phone, you can download it here.