Bitcoin Forum

This is a warning, there seems to be a fake MEW apps again on Google Play.

https://i.imgur.com/DOJVIs5.png

https://i.imgur.com/uxQU7ht.png


Been downloaded 160++ times already (including myself, but just to test it). And by looking closely at the code:

Edit:

Archive: http://archive.is/aTRca

https://i.imgur.com/IL2Cgro.png

So it will ask for your private keys and other secret keys,


Then it will be over, cyber criminals have the info to steal your coins.

When I checked on Google Play Store I did not find a similar application that you mean by the application developer"mew limited" maybe the application has been blocked by the Google Play Store.

I only found the official application from mew with the name of the developer "MyEtehrWallet" and the application is original and can be checked directly through the website MyEtherwallet.com (https://www.myetherwallet.com/create-wallet)
https://i.postimg.cc/Vs4btLRW/Screenshot-66.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/m2D1yfpf/Screenshot-67.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/vZx1C7d0/Screenshot-69.jpg


But there are also other suspicious MEW applications like the ones I marked below. "Mew Wallet Beta".
https://i.postimg.cc/4NS78LjK/Screenshot-68.jpg

It is still up in the Google play, you need to copy what the OP has put.

Need people to report this malicious apps, it is still being downloaded 169x as we speak. And those reviews are obviously fake.

We can also check this link https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/2812853?hl=en

Google needs to step up their shit. I used to frequently crap at Apple for their App Store being super restrictive and for their OS being a "walled garden", but I've recently been advocating for the usage of iPhones for non-tech literate friends and family due to crap like this.

I think that's what's great about Apple Store it's that it's not an easy task to get there and they are verifying the apps that go there. It's safe for the non-tech-savvy people who don't have knowledge with regards to possible scams that they could encounter. Unless the person Jailbreaks their Apple Devices and installs from unverified sources of apps, which would be dangerous, lol.

Yeap. It might be a pain in the ass to get your apps into the iOS App Store if you're a developer, but the App Store is tight for a good reason.

True. But in the end it's mostly the tech-savvy people who jailbreaks their iPhones anyway, so we probably can assume that they(at least most) know what they're doing in the first place. On the other hand I know a lot of people that own Android phones that installs random .APKs of cracked apps. Yikes.

Exactly, there used to be many haters of Apple's App Store and IOS for that matter, but look at how Google turns out to be. I move from Windows based laptop, enjoying my 2 year old MacBook. Recently, there's been a lot of attacks using Google's platform, and it's been a dangerous place to download anything.

Indeed, look! I can't even believe that the fake app got a perfect 5 star from 146 feedbacks ::). And I think there are only two possible reasons for that: either the app perfectly copied the original or those 146 people are just paid to tell good reviews. Nonetheless, Play Store must act because what seems right now is that even them are not immune from malicious attacks. Such loopholes make me appreciate iOS more.

They most likely are paid reviews. There are more than enough places to buy them from, and it's a shame that you can literally launch a malicious app on a platform that is supposed to be trusted and get fake positive reviews for a matter of bucks.

Agreed. From ads to fake YouTube giveaways to fake, malicious software on their own services, it's getting really annoying. I would have probably trusted that app if I saw the rating it has, it's one of the factors I consider - only few check source codes.. I usually go to the official websites I need to get something from and get the Play Store link from over there.

Almost guaranteed that it's the latter. I mean, it would be silly to assume that people who actually got their funds stolen to be leaving positive feedback lol. Unfortunately it's really easy to make Google accounts hence it's easy to fake reviews, in contrast to Apple whereas as far as I know you'd actually need to leave the review using an Apple device.

I would advise you to download the official ethereum wallet from their website . I still remember few years ago when someone hacked mew official website and stole more than 200 ethereum

I remember some buy and sell stores that also repair phones actually could jailbreak for you for a labor fee. I think not everyone is tech-savvy who had their phones jailbroken. I think they just want to get away with paid apps for free, which is actually bad and could be the gateway to your personal information on the phone. Installing random or "seem to be safe" APK's are could be the entry point to hacking your phone. Double yikes.  :o

There is no doubt that the iPhone is far better security-wise than an android phone and the same is applicable to the store. I have been using both and found the iPhone far better in security. Almost all apps are payable and that is one of the reasons why people do not fiddle with apps store. Whereas on Google store every app is free and people would download anything just to check how it works.

I think you found this wallet into Google's website only and not in the Google play store application. Also, it is better to make sure you must need to download into secured sources but still, even this is a release from the google it is safe because this is unlike the apple store it is more secured each code and all in all platform because they want to make sure the security of their users.

Still it is a good move OP to be more aware most of the newbies that would like to use the MEW.


We all know that iPhone js one of the most secured Operating system and platform before they release the product into the market but still we dont have enough funds to bought this and most of the user now are on Android and downloading file in google play, and apk pure if we cannot find out the application we want.

OP
It would be good to search forum before posting to avoid duplicate topics :)
I have posted the same thing before in scam accusation board:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5259518

Everyone please report them on google store.

Well, this is completely up for debate, but I would agree that security wise, Iphone or IOS is far more better specially if we are going to compare it regarding this security. But there are still majority who wanted to used Google so it's really up to them. Specially if they are a crypto enthusiast and suddenly feel a victim for this kind of attacks from cyber criminals. Sometimes you really need to experience this kind of things (although its not good), before realizing which one is better.

The Google Play store contains a very large number of fake and fraudulent applications that are intended for theft and most fraudulent applications are the portfolio applications, so when we want to download a special application for a specific wallet, it is better that we download it from the official website because it is more secure

In terms of a technical perspective, I'm not sure if we can even compare the security as iOS is closed source. iOS is mostly just deemed secure  not because it's technologically more secure, but more because it's very strict; hence why Apple is frequently called "walled garden". Probably like saying that person A is safer than person B because person A likes going out daily(hence more at risk of murder/accidents/etc) whereas person B likes staying at home.


While there are more paid apps on the Apple App Store, not at all. There are also a good number of paid apps on the Android Play Store. You can only call every app free if you frequently download cracked APKs lol.

Very right, even if you have to download on the cellphone you should first go to official website and from there Click on google playstore link from that website, this way you will directly land on the correct application. If you use iPhone you will not face such issues as apple store security is strict and it is not possible to list fraudulent apps in apple store.

Google should be blamed here for accepting such clone into it's app store. It's a finance app which would have cost some users some loses. I now see reason why iOS stores are very strict when accepting apps into in store, especially finance apps. No one would have spot the difference here except for the developer's name, download count and rating.

And that is unfortunately not always the case. The same people publishing those fake apps on the Play Store are also bomb reviewing the legit apps with 1 star reviews so they go down in the search list and also appear less legit. For example, the Ledger Live app has 1.7 stars ratings when just a few says ago, it had around 4 stars. Number of downloads are also extremely easy to bypass/spoof. You still need and iOS and Apple account to do all of that, while on Android, you just need to download an emulator or pay extremely cheap rates for farms to do that for you.

The only viable way of always going to the real app is by checking the url/full name of the app (e.g com.ledger.ledgerlive) which is unique per app and finding it through the company’s/app’s website rather than searching for it on the Play Store.

I have already talked about this. But Google has almost zero verification when letting new apps come to their store, while Apple is more of an perfectionist, doing deep analysis of what the app does and how it makes. I have published apps on both stores so I know how all of that works.

It is very easy to list any app in google play store and there is not much check and balance by the google. That's why we see a lot of apps being listed in play store which are fake ones and some phishing ones to which are made to collect the data from the cell phone. I do not download much apps from playstore and use only the ones which i require mostly for my routine.

Google has turned into a place where noobs creates apps and integrate on it, enough is enough for google to promoting fake and fraudulent apps.
I would advice anyone that would like to access the legit MEW app to click through the website www.myetherwallet.com and follow procedure to download app.
I have been scammed before using this method, I inserted my private key in www.myétherwallet.com the site looks exactly as the former, the letter  é makes the different. So be careful with such website too.

This Fake MEW wallet already has a lot of fake five star reviews in it, you will literally only see 1 liner reviews explaining how "excellent" the app is which isn't really typical for any reviewer to say. Usually when you will look at fake wallet apps you will see reviews of how they got scammed by this app well this app is showing differently since it is padded reviews and maybe they are just waiting the right moment to strike when a lot of people have downloaded the app, that's why reporting this app before a scam happens is something we need to do.

It's not like that we don't have a choice. We just need to be helpful and share these kind of fake or whatever shit it is to help other people be aware of such fake ones. We don't have a choice that we can make google play not to accept such fake apps. All we can do for now is to share and report these fake shits.

It seems like it easy to be qualified in Google or maybe they paid google to put their applications in the google extensions.

I've seen also mew in google play store but I've only used the website since it has a lot of security features making sure that the account is secured.

The best thing to do is stay away from this application since there are so many fake applications or wallets online even on google it easy to verified legitimate websites and application if your careful and knowledgeable.

I must be in real big trouble then because I always look at reviews and star ratings before downloading any app from the playstore. So, this is an easy way to deceive users then? Before stumbling on this thread today, I tried to download Electrum wallet earlier but the rating was below my gauge of 4+ (in fact, it was around 3+), I quickly abandoned it. I know there are fake sites parading Electrum wallets and I didn't want to leave anything to chance.

This is getting dicey and I think the honourable thing will be for Google to step up its game on Android playstore. Failure to do that will sooner than later cause them loss of credibility and fan base.

You should never rely on reviews or ratings left by random people. Anyone can create a new account and leave a fake positive review and 5 stars rating. It can be manipulated easily.
Always get the app link from the official website.

I doubt this will happen any time soon as there are no serious competitors for them.

Google has a long way to go regarding its nonchalant altitude allowing apps performing below what they put in their reviews. Tones of apps with a lot of mediocrity, it is appalling and saddening seeing phishing apps on Google even in 2020. I think iOS is way more secured than Google Play store.

This is really identical, almost the same as the original. The scammers really are increasingly developing in doing scams and also attracting prospective victims. It would be better if when you want to download and install the application it would be better if we directly go to the official website. There will usually be an application download link. From there we can find the official application.

This is really saddening knowing that a lot of users are trusting google play. And most of the users are not checking the authenticity of the app. They will know that it is fake once they lost their money. I hope for those users that will find these apps as fake, report it immediately to prevent other users to be victimized by these scammers.

And just imagine that Google and their platforms are accounted for 2/3 of desktop and mobile apps globally, they should be really upping their game as well, but sadly, it looks like they doing anything about it. The apps is still up and I'm sure they have received reports about it. But they are too slow to react and the scammers could have victimised noobs already.

Again, education is the key here. If we can't really take away ourselves from using Google, unless practice a good security to prevent us from falling from this cyber criminals.

I'm really disappointed as to how Google really handle this case, it is still up in their Google Play which means chances are there could be newbies going to download it and be another numbers in the growing list of victims.

I also think sometime google handles this fake issue or related case resolved lately also sometimes google is confused about actual action, related to thinking google hesitated the properly action fake app/addons because google is not decided to find out real or fake or fake. when someone reported that then google tries to solve this fake issue.

I used to get app downloads on 9game but stopped because I was conscious of not getting malware and all that (though I never had any such scare), they have great apps there. You think they aren't a competition for playstore?


Sometimes people don't even know the official sites of what they're looking for.

On Electrum, I wonder why the team chose to be indifferent toward publicity and marketing of its site, letting the public know the original site is a .org, and not .com.

It doesn't really matter that much though. If you open electrum.com, it automatically redirects to electrum.org anyway. And based on the whois information of both domains, it seems like it has one owner anyway.

yes, and there might already made a transfer of crypto from their wallet to the hacker's wallet. Good thing that it has been shared and discuss here so as to give caution to other users.

The problem is that there are other crytpo users that are not member of this forum and does not have any idea regarding on this fraud app.

The worst case is that this app coule be use for fraud like inviting someone to buy some crypto and store it in that kind of wallet which obviously design as a trap.

There weren't anyone yet postingg a thread about their tokens lost due to this fake mew, its number of downloads must be just from the dev to test. Its crazy why google store had not screen these app before makin it available for downloads.   If no one yet had lost money, the fake app failed.

It would be unrealistic to assume that just because there have been no complaints and reports, that it automatically means that no one had lost money through this scam yet. Let's not forget that only a minority are involved in communities such as Bitcointalk and Reddit, and if they complain somewhere else, chances are, we might not even hear about it.

149 ratings, with mostly fake/ paid ones.

Those victims gonna RIP.

Most cryptocurrency lovers surely know the forum bitcointalk.org because this forum is the most appropriate place to explore all the problem associated with it. The belief in the minority that talk elsewhere about the problem is also not to blame, because not all cryptocurrency user are also user of the bitcointalk.org forum. They also can still talk in other places they want to solve the problem.

We never know that how many people have been determined as victim of fake application because they have never spoken here and all this is entirely Google is fault. They continue to allow fake application to be registered without further filtering before being released. However, we also never know for sure how many user are downloading application that are genuine user and in my opinion it is important to report this case on Google for immediate action.

Lol, you are a classic example of a crypto enthusiast who doesn't understand how hacks are happening around here. Do you know who this devs are? You shouldn't assume that no one has lost their tokens or their hard earn money until it is too late. The only way to prevent anyone is for Google to really be strict and to take down apps that has been reported multiple times already.

Relax, you two are not wrong, but just misinterpreted the problem. What is now being discussed is about fraud attempt by using fake application that circulate in the google store and not about hacking.

Cybercriminal will continue to grow and various type of experiment to trick the victim. Google might be blamed for this because there have been many similar cases that have happened before and that must be an important lesson for them to clean up. But in reality they still allow this to happen and really this will cause many problems for them and Google user.

indeed phishing crimes like this always happen and always present with a variety of new methods. We also need to be vigilant not to get caught up in applications like this. must be very careful to install a wallet that is associated with our personal assets.

Before installing the application, we should first do some research.

Google Playstore can indeed be blamed, but we as users must provide negative feedback if indeed the application is dangerous. we must contribute to overcoming such malicious applications.

The MEW app from the Myetherwallet site has an inconvenience and I really don't like it, it doesn't allow me to enter the Private Key, I absolutely don't store json files or seed codes.
How to report a fraudulent app to Google Play to remove it?

I'm not sure how they respond to this but I suggest having a new wallet and save the seeds code this time. Quite that easy to do it rather than to wait for their action and replies from their support team unless if you have stored a lot of altcoins on that wallet. This is certainly a lesson to learn for you and see's how important to have your seeds than anyone else and to have it keeps safe. But nothing too difficult if you have been using fake MEW wallets and surely you can't retrieve your wallet anymore even you have the private keys.

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I hope Google Play store will take action for this and eliminate those fake apps.
Maybe I should visit directly to the site rather than use the apps store. It gonna be safe, though.

Hey OP,

Thanks for the information. I did check the link but it seems that Google has removed this fake app from its store. Great job by all the members in this forum for reporting this app so fast.


It is true considering the global mobile market there are only two operating system Android and iOS. If you do a small search using the keyword "ios vs android" most of them come under the conclusion that iOS is far better when you talk about security. Google need to work on it.

This post is really very informative and helpful for newbies.
Myetherwallet is the most popular Ethereum based Crypto Wallet.Thats why this is really common to have a lot of fake Apps and phishing web site.
Here I have some previous topics where op already described about fake myetherwallet app and website.

Fake My Ether Wallet - myetherwallet.com-eth.network (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5144279.0)

Fake Electrum, MEW and Meta Mask (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5238499.0/)

Newbies can take a look about various ways of fake Myetherwallet.

So always be careful about fake wallets because in play store you will find a lot of scammers who are launching fake wallets everyday.

Thanks to those who take the time and effort to report this malicious fake MEW on Google Play. It has been taken down already, so I'm closing this thread, again just be careful and learn what is legit MEW wallet and not, and all other crypto related apps.