A few of the apps - all created by the same individual - were even promoted within the Play Store's "Trending" section, according to security researcher Lukas Stefanko.
It's no secret that Google's Play Store isn't the best-policed app store out there. Malicious and nonfunctional apps appear on the store regularly, and they don't always get removed in a timely manner, Tech Spot reported.
This has become even more clear today, as security researcher Lukas Stefanko has revealed that 13 now-removed Android apps, downloaded by over 560,000 users, contained malware. These apps were all masquerading as various Car Simulator games, taking advantage of misleading thumbnails and supposed in-game screenshots to entice users to download them.