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The temperatures are soaring and, as is the way with filthy parasites, malodorous malicious software is breeding in the heat. To that end we thought we’d take a look at some of the latest crooked contenders competing for your cash…

First up, updating the now antiquated Mini Opera scam, rather than merely tricking users into downloading what they thought was the browser app before disappearing and surreptitiously sending SMS messages to premium rate numbers, the new Mini malware no longer just mimics, but actually comes bundled with a fake Opera aping app. Once downloaded, permissions will be requested and, if you are foolish enough to a) download Mini Opera from anywhere but Google Play and b) give those permissions, brace for a phone bill that may break the bank.

Second in line, are you susceptible to Japanese spam email? Then you could be on the receiving end of something far worse than just an e-nnoyance. Flagged up by Symantec this week, Android.Ackposts is a Trojan posing as a power-saver for your device under the name of Batterylong.apk. Arriving as a link with an invitation to download, we don’t need to tell you to decline it like the plague, but those that don’t will go through the usual permission granting protocols prior to having their contact database covertly copied to an external source for later spam attacks.

And finally for now some mystery malware – if you stumble across an icon on your smartphone simply called ‘Store’, it seems you’re being monitored. According to BitDefender Labs who picked up on this abstruse attacker, this fresh foreign body broadcasts the latitude and longitude of your device, whilst also attempting to access your Wi-Fi connection. The end purpose of all this is yet to be uncovered, but rest assured it won’t be anything good!

Remember: stick to Google Play, stay clean, stay safe!