"pending transactions," will allow delayed payments at Play Store, with cash, bank transfer and direct debit.

Google launched a new payment option, specially for the emerging markets in the areas where credit cards and banking are sparse. So cash-based transactions are still preferred in those regions. The new payment option is known as "pending transactions," which Play Store Director of Engineering Aurash Mahbod describes as a "new class of delayed form of payment -- like cash, bank transfer and direct debit."

The version that's now live in Japan and Mexico allows users to buy paid apps by paying cash at local convenience stores. Google will follow up with the ability to pay for in-app transactions and will most likely make the option available in other developing nations.

Fast forward to 7:55 mark for the introduction of the new payment scheme.

iOS variant of popular Exodus Android spyware discovered according to a presentation at the Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit conference,

Spyware
Hackers found their way into Apple's ecosystem, and possibly your phone, if you were downloading iOS apps from outside, as the app has not yet been distributed via the official Apple App Store, for now.
Perpetrators have been nudging people to download something called Exodus, an app that was actually malware in disguise. The app gains access to photos, videos, device IDs, audio recordings, and contacts, potentially tracking a victim's location and listening to their conversations through the microphone. It's an unusual break-in for Apple's locked-down ecosystem so be vigilant when you grab new apps. Research a bit.

Security researchers have discovered the iOS counterpart of a dangerous Android spyware strain that was found earlier this year on the official Google Play Store. In a research publication released today and presented at the Kaspersky Security Analyst Summit conference, SAS, the research group Lookout said it discovered an iOS variant of this spyware during their analysis of Exodus samples they've found last year.
Exodus Android spyware was developed by an Italian app maker Connexxa, who provides surveillance tools to Italian authorities. Earlier last month the spyware was discovered by security researchers from Security Without Borders. The spyware was hidden inside an app uploaded on Google Play Store. It targeted the customers of a local Italian Internet service provider.
The spyware is named Exodus and was developed by Italian app maker Connexxa, a known provider of surveillance tools to Italian authorities.

Exodus came to light when last month security researchers from Security Without Borders found the spyware hidden inside an app on the Play Store, targeted at the customers of a local Italian internet service provider (ISP).

They said the spyware was capable of rooting Android devices and possessed an advanced set of spying features that gave attackers full control of infected devices.

Security Without Borders said it detected nearly 25 different Exodus-infected apps that had been uploaded on the Play Store over the last two years.

Google Clears Up Google Play Store MIllions Of Fake, Bad Comments And Thousands Of Related Apps

 
Google is fighting a good battle to remove bogus app reviews from the store. According to a recent post, Google and Android team is working hard to improve the trustworthiness of the feedback one finds. The company developed and deployed a system this year that uses a mix of AI and human oversight to remove junk Play Store reviews and the apps that promote them. The results are pretty intimidating. Recently, Google removed "millions" of dodgy ratings and reviews, and "thousands" of apps encouraging shady behavior.
Google advises app developers;

There are various ways in which ratings and reviews may violate our developer guidelines:

• Bad content: Reviews that are profane, hateful, or off-topic.
• Fake ratings: Ratings and reviews meant to manipulate an app's average rating or top reviews. We've seen different approaches to manipulate the average rating; from 5-star attacks to positively boost an app's average rating, to 1-star attacks to influence it negatively.
• Incentivized ratings: Ratings and reviews given by real humans in exchange for money or valuable items.

When we see these, we take action on the app itself, as well as the review or rating in question.

In 2018, the Google Play Trust & Safety teams deployed a system that combines human intelligence with machine learning to detect and enforce policy violations in ratings and reviews. A team of engineers and analysts closely monitor and study suspicious activities in Play's ratings and reviews, and improve the model's precision and recall on a regular basis. We also regularly ask skilled reviewers to check the decisions made by our models for quality assurance.

It's a big job. To give you a sense of the volume we manage, here are some numbers from a recent week:

• Millions of reviews and ratings detected and removed from the Play Store.
• Thousands of bad apps identified due to suspicious reviews and rating activities on them.

Our team can do a lot, but we need your help to keep Google Play a safe and trusted place for apps and games.

If you're a developer, you can help us by doing the following:

• Don't buy fake or incentivized ratings.
• Don't run campaigns, in-app or otherwise, like "Give us 5 stars and we'll give you this in-app item!" That counts as incentivized ratings, and it's prohibited by policy.
• Do read the Google Play Developer Policy to make sure you are not inadvertently making violations.