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Google PlayTrust & Safety

Social EngineeringSocial engineering and scareware

What this guideline means

This covers content or UI designed to alarm users into a hasty action — false claims of malware infection, urgent "your device is at risk" messaging — used to drive installs, purchases, or permission grants through fear rather than genuine need.

Why apps actually get flagged

A frequent pattern is an ad creative (sometimes from a third-party ad network, not the app itself) claiming the user's phone is infected, which links through to install another app.

A real example

"Your app or an ad served within it makes false claims about the security or performance of the user's device to induce a download or purchase, per the Social Engineering policy."

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Related guidelines
5.1.1Data Collection and Storage4.3Spam2.1App Completeness
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