A report has revealed dozens of apps that hide gambling platforms under the guise of simple games and easy-to-use applications. Betting platforms are disguised as regular apps, and Brazilian users have noticed a significant increase in poorly designed games appearing among the first results when browsing app store categories such as navigation, travel, and weather. Many of these use AI-generated graphics of animals as icons for the apps, which turn out to be known as "hidden apps" and are simply interfaces for secret betting and gambling applications.

Details about hidden betting apps

According to 9to5mac, more than 60 apps behave exactly as shown in the app store screenshots when accessed from almost anywhere in the world except Brazil. However, when opened from a Brazilian IP address, these apps reveal themselves as online betting platforms.

It was found that most of these apps are published by developer accounts with only one page on the app store. Many of the developers' names appear to be more common in Vietnam and other countries than in Brazil.

The apps also tend to use similar (and in some cases identical) privacy policies, do not usually log updates, and have a size of around 15 MB.

Further research found an open GitHub repository containing instructions for Cursor software to create simple Vibe-language applications used as interfaces for betting platforms.

The instructions stipulate that each app should include between three and five visual interfaces, use an appealing name and animal-inspired icon (such as a dragon, bull, rabbit, mouse or tiger), and support remote guidance either to the local app, an in-app web page, or an external website.

The instructions also stipulate that apps should be built on simple, easy-to-understand concepts, with a clear brand and many prominent features, while being sufficiently different from one another to appear as separate products.

The repository also includes explicit instructions aimed at preventing the classification of apps as suspicious during app store review. These include giving each app a unique name for its startup and remote configuration code, making it harder for reviewers to identify them as part of the same group.