San Francisco, Mar 21 (IANS): Google has suspended the Chinese shopping app Pinduoduo after finding malware in versions of the software, the media reported.

In recent weeks, several Chinese security researchers have accused Pinduoduo, a rising e-commerce giant with nearly 800 million active users, of developing Android apps that contain malware designed to monitor users, reports TechCrunch.

"Off-Play versions of this app that have been found to contain malware have been enforced on via Google Play Protect, Ed Fernandez, a Google spokesperson, was quoted as saying.

He also stated that Google has suspended Pinduoduo's official app on the Play Store "for security concerns while we continue our investigation".

Effectively, the tech giant has set Google Play Protect, it's Android security mechanism, to prevent users from installing these malicious apps and to warn those who already have them installed, prompting them to uninstall them.

The report said that an anonymous security researcher has alerted of the claims against the apps and stated that they analysed the apps as well, discovering that the apps were exploiting several zero-day vulnerabilities to hack their users.

It should be noted that Google Play is not available in China, and the malicious apps were found in the custom app stores of phone manufacturers Samsung, Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi, according to anonymous security researchers.