Google has reportedly removed 22 malicious applications from the Android Market after security vendors tipped off the company about apps attempting to trick users into accepting fraudulent charges via SMS.

Security firm Lookout Mobile Security says calls the phenomenon "SMS toll fraud," which involves applications that appear similar to well-known software tricking users into accepting charges via text message. Also known as "Android.Rufraud," Symantec says it's a "Trojan horse for Android devices that sends SMS messages to premium-rate phone numbers," but which poses very low risk and is easy to remove.

Lookout says European users have been targeted by SMS toll fraud over the past few months, and similar new threats appeared in the Android Market last week. North American users have not been affected by any of the malicious apps "as the fraudulent SMS code is gated on the user's country (as indicated by their SIM)."

"The initial batch appeared as horoscope apps with a fairly hidden ToS indicating charges," Lookout wrote. "The initial application activity presents the user with a single option to continue, which is presumed to be an agreement to premium charges that are buried within layers of less than clear links. The Premium Short Codes used could affect users in Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Czech Republic, Poland, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Estonia as well as Great Britain, Italy, Israel, France, and Germany."

Last week, Lookout notified Google of nine identical applications skinned to appear as downloaders for popular games like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, or as wallpaper apps for popular movies like Twilight. These nine applications were downloaded by only a handful of users before Google pulled them from the market.

But that's not all! The fraudsters then "posted 13 new supposed downloaders to the Android Market, once again positioned as free versions of popular games." Lookout estimates that the apps were downloaded 14,000 times, but Google had pulled the apps from the Market as of the time Lookout posted its update on Sunday. Android Market rules do not block applications from using SMS, but it's possible the apps could have pulled for piracy reasons since they mimicked legitimate software.

We asked Google whether it remotely deleted the offending applications from users' phones, as it has in some cases in the past, but the company declined to comment on the specifics of this latest case. Google removed 21 applications from the Android Market earlier this year after it was discovered the apps were secretly installing malware. By comparison, Apple's relatively closed App Store has fended off many security problems, but the iPhone is not immune either—one security researcher proved this recently by putting a malicious application through Apple's approval process and onto the App Store.