The Federal Trade Commission revealed charges today against an Ohio man who created an app that secretly used consumers' phones to mine second-tier cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin, Litecoin, and Quarkcoin.

The case against app creator Ryan Ramminger and a company called Equiliv Investments has been settled. Ramminger agreed to pay $50,000 to the State of New Jersey, which investigated the case along with the FTC. All but $5,200 of the settlement money will be vacated within three years provided Ramminger complies with the agreement, which calls for him to not create malware.

Ramminger's app was called "Prized," and it was available through the Google Play store. It offered prizes and points in return for playing games. But the program included hidden malware, which "[took] control of the computing resources of consumers' mobile devices to mine for virtual currencies, such as Dogecoin, Litecoin, and Quarkcoin."

Not only did Ramminger and Equiliv neglect to tell their customers what was happening in their phones, but their terms of use specifically represented that any code on the Prized app "will be free of malware, spyware, time bombs, and viruses."

The most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, isn't mentioned in the FTC charges. Dogecoin, which was basically started as a joke named after the "doge" meme in 2013, may have been selected because it has a fast coin-creation rate.

Cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin and Bitcoin aren't backed by any government, but instead these are generated by "mining," which involves having computers solve complex problems to create the currency. It's possible to mine in "pools," which allows the joining together of multiple computers to mine more quickly.

"Consumers downloaded this app thinking that at the very worst it would not be as useful or entertaining as advertised," said acting New Jersey Attorney General John J. Hoffman. "Instead, the app allegedly turned out to be a Trojan horse for intrusive, invasive malware that was potentially damaging to expensive smartphones and other mobile devices."

This is the second recent bust originating from the FTC's FinTech group, which is "committed to protecting consumers in the fast-moving realm of financial technology." Earlier in June, the FTC took action against a failed Kickstarter that didn't deliver a promised board game.

Ramminger couldn't be reached to comment for this story.