Bitcoin Forum

 Neither the Google Play or App Store is immune from its share of fake, spammy, or fraudulent apps. But it is Android users who tend to suffer most at the hands of unscrupulous developers.
 One of the most egregious apps, which has hoodwinked thousands of users, is simply named Poloniex. Despite purporting to be the “Poloniex ® Offical App” [sic] of the popular cryptocurrency exchange, it is nothing of the sort. Its description boasts of such features as “Possible powerfull [sic] exchange BTC or altcoins.”
 The Poloniex app is by no means the only fraudulent one of its kind – there are at least five apps bearing the Poloniex name on Google Play alone. One of the reasons why Poloniex has been so easy to impersonate is because the exchange lacks its own official mobile app. This leaves a void which scammers have been only too happy to fill.

 https://news.bitcoin.com/10000-people-downloaded-fake-cryptocurrency-apps/

and as more people get into crypto currencies and want to trade to make those quick easy bucks the opportunity for the fake app builders is massive.
"One of the reasons why Poloniex has been so easy to impersonate is because the exchange lacks its own official mobile app" this is where people are being caught out.
I thought Google in particular was vetting all the app's in their play store, I am obviously wrong.

It's amazing why Google Play and App Store do not test applications before making them available for download. You can not so carelessly treat safety issues.

I agree on this one. I prefer Android over Apple's iOS because it's more open, adjustable and devices are not as overpriced. But Google Play is not regulated enough. Seems like Google puts quantity over quality so they don't manually check new apps but they just approve them all. I can imagine there are hundreds of new apps every day but they should hire new people to test new apps before approving them. Money shouldn't be the problem.

cryptocurrencies have value, you may call some of them a currency even, specially bitcoin. and when money is involved lots of scams will follow, from people who are always out there wanting to make money by having their hands in other people pockets.

and it is not just Google Play or App Store, it is all kinds of scams. not so long ago we saw how the scammers used a fake web wallet for bitcoin gold and used desperate people trying to get the airdrop to rob them blind from both bitcoin and bitcoin gold.

It's the same why search engines host feature ads at the top of search results that are actually phishing sites - they don't care about users, they care about their profit and scammers pay well for ads. And they are absolutely not accountable for being part of the crime, because regulators don't care about protecting consumers, they mostly just work for lobbysts to create monopolies. Cryptocurrencies can be quite dangerous for people with poor security practices, which means for most people in general, so crypto community should focus more attention on this topic, there should be more stickied posts, more discussions, more articles and videos and so on.

In my point of view, this sad situation could be partly avoided if Poloniex at least came up with a notice that they don't have any app available in the market and those apps using their brand name are fake and unauthorized. Or maybe Poloniex does not really care and are more inclined to just concentrate on their own problems having no time for a concern like this. It is also sad that Google Play Store failed to do some verification whether an app can be the real one or just another fake out to probably victimize innocent users. They should have someone checking all of the apps available under their management making sure that they are not fakes. We are now swimming in the world of fakes like fake news and now we have fake apps...what's next...maybe fake Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is the ideal asset to steal - it's pseudonymous, given the right circumstances; it can't be charged back after you steal it; and it has a very significant value sometimes stored in relatively vulnerable conditions.

That's why it's extremely important for the vast majority of BTC users to be aware of this and act accordingly by securing their coins as well as possible.

BTC's recent speculation could be really harmful for some people who get in before learning enough about financial sovereignty first.  Since they're used to bank transactions where most of the security is done for them and they have much fewer options, they don't know how to cope.

Why would they?! This option will ask a lot of financial, so they simply stay it on gadget's owner own risk. I would not even try to install something on my phone, cause of I often use a public wifi and I was reading that hackers are just waiting for that to grab someone's bitcoins.

Actually even official pages putting out scam wallets BTG did it twice.

Because they were "hacked" and it took them days to find out. It just shows how experienced the BTG dev team is and why their coin is 5 times cheaper than BCH...

With BTC the situation is extremely complicated because most people don't protect their coins. The whole concept of keeping your money on your computer is relatively new. If someone managed to hack your bank account all they could do is send the money to another account in someone's name, which would lead the police right to that person. Also the money could be frozen if you made the call fast enough. With BTC the money can't be frozen and go to an anonymous address, which makes it very easy for thieves to steal, provided that the owner doesn't know how to protect his wallet. This is only going to get worse if people keep being careless.

how can you evaluate hundreds of apps daily to determine if it is legit or not without having tested it?
thats why there is a system of reviews and reports that exist
the other thing that it is not that effective-a fake app can sit there for days and get downloaded and installed by thousands
but Google doesn't have an army of testers that simply run every new app that is uploaded to their store
maybe they should do that,seeing how much money they are getting,but at the moment we got what we got

It's also amazing to know that you are too dumb to think google should do it, Google play is a marketplace for Application, That's why ratings and user's reviews are there to know if the app is legit or not. As far as i know, Google Play now have the Verified Apps Mark which means that these is App is verified by google, it is safe and not harmful. It is still the end users who are doing it wrong and get easily scammed by these Fake APPS,Do not blame google play and app store.

Well this doesn't surprises me. Google play doesn't cares whether the apps on their store are a complete scam or not, Have you seen the apps which people buy for $500 just to show off their money? it's basically an empty app with a diamond icon. Not only this, there are wallets which people are using by unknown developers, I hope they realise sooner than later that they will get scammed. Along with that here is something interesting. Lookup the keyword 'Bitcoin Generator' on google and see the results popup. The Ads are a complete scam, they run some fancy scripts and ask for a 0.008 BTC payment to generate the 'transaction'. As bitcoin becomes popular these scams will become more popular.

Now, I wonder how much of poloniex users that is complaining about their btc and altcoins stolen that has used any of these apps?

Hiring people to test or beta test apps before approving is a good idea but strenous, will require a lot of time, an is impossible. First of all, there are different types of apps that is crypto-related. Let's take faucet apps as an example. Most faucet apps requires a quota before one can withdraw, so are beta testers supposed to work for days for a single app just to reach that quota? Well, unless, there's a system that works for all apps. It's a good thing that there's a review in every app, tho.

How does this affect GooglePlay or App Store ?
They get payed for it . For every publication of an app on their store , they get a good payment in return . There are negligible measure taken place in order to check the authenticity of the app or product . Even though google is banning web pages and apps which are potentially spammed everyday , they fail to catch most of them . There are many spams out there waiting for a potential rat to get caught by the bait.

Am I the only one amazed that ONLY 10 000 people have downloaded it?

Probably because they didn't advertise their app as an "earn bitcoin with your phone" kind of scam.
Last week I was browsing through google play and looking at bitcoin apps which returned for "earn bitcoin" and "free bitcoin".
My finger got tired and I was still scrolling down the list looking at what was 90% crap apps.

I'm willing to bet that people will download even a MtGox trading app.

Newbies who want to join Bitcoin or cyptocurrency are fooled by such apps to for their private keys or money. The rising demand has brought new users over the market but also they are unaware of the risks of using unauthorized application or website. Best example can be seen on myetherwallet.com where they have recently started creating awareness among users who come to the site. Such initiatives can definitely help in removing fake apps and websites. Also, new users should only download google play protect apps which are more secure than other.

Because its apple or google and not some other third party app, very few people will pay attention to the kind of apps they download because they trust the company brands hosting these fake apps...And the people that will always be targeted are first time users of cryptocurrencies.

There is certainly going to be collateral damage for using these fake apps .

Just seeing five apps bearing the poloniex name in the those app stores is already  very suspicious so users should have used their brains before using it instead. Just one dumb whale and they could turn one scammer to a wealthy person.

I saw that video in you tube on how to claim bitcoin gold requiring you to fill up some information including the private key or seed. People who are not aware of what is happening immediately fill up the form excited to claim their bitcoin gold and end up being scammed because they just want free coins immediately without even searching further if that is the right thing to do.

With the increase of value of cryptocurrencies is the increase in numbers of scammers as well so we should always do some due diligence before doing something like downloading an app. I am not of one of those that have downloaded the fake Poloniex app but maybe if I am still trading in Poloniex then I may have downloaded it as well which would be my fault then. This is an eye opener to always be on guard when it comes to dealing with our funds.

This is alarming as people with money on their exchange account will be affected in a bad way. Usually creating your own app is easy and if you are an android user uploading your app won't be a problem because their is a little to none screening process that is happening. This kind of apps that are built to become Phishing system for them is really bad for people who are easily fooled, my advice is if you are on a mobile you really need to sacrifice and use the main website and if you are downloading an app use the links that the Exchange sites are providing usually the apk that they will provide will be an official one.