Most of us trust app stores such as google playstore while knowing that all the apps in there are verified, safe and don't have any malicious intent on our private information and funds but this is not always true.
These app stores are a sea of good and bad apps. Therefore extra steps must be taken to safeguard your funds and other sensitive information.
Time and time again I have seen articles like this
Ethereum Scam App Appears on Google Play Store, Malware Researcher Reports and I just thought may I would try to alert some users here about it and how you may avoid being a victim
Am gonna look at majorly Wallets and Exchange apps. Of course, this can stretch out to other apps like trade signal apps, price alerting apps but they are not as damaging as the first two.
A. FAKE WALLET APPSThese are created with the intent to;
1. Lure you into importing your address in them thereby giving the hacker behind the wallet your private key or mnemonic phrases. The hacker later uses your private key to access your account and withdraw all the cryptos in it
2. Generate for you a public and private key which the hacker already knows, as soon as you send your digital assets into your new wallet, the hacker just withdraws it since he has access to the private key
A classic example of such fake crypto wallets is this:
B. FAKE EXCHANGE APPSThis is common especially with exchanges that are re-known in crypto trading but have no official app. Exchanges like Bittrex, Coinexchange,
Kraken, HitBTC etc
Time and time again, fake apps keep popping up in google playstore. However, on my recent check, I found out that most of them had been removed from the app store
These are created with an intent to phish your login details so that they can easily access your trading account and steal whatever asset you have kept in your exchange wallet.
How to avoid being a victim1.
Get Download links only from Official websites.Always try as much as possible to download Exchange and Wallet apps from official site links to avoid landing on fake apps in playstore. For example, once you visit the official NEO website, you will be able to see Official and authentic wallets under the
client tab;
https://neo.org/clientFor bitcoin's case, you can easily get your favorite wallet through the
"Choose your wallet" tab which can easily be seen on the Official bitcoin Website;
https://bitcoin.org/How to get official project/coin website links?coinmarketcap is your friend here.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FH6wnl9t.png&t=665&c=Pjd5EqlrdMw2Rg)
2.
Look at the number of downloadsIf the downloads are so few, do not download. Authentic apps usually have so many downloads, at least 1000+
3.
Look at the reviewsi. So many reviews mean the app is being used by so many real users, fewer reviews could mean fake reviews.
ii. Only positive reviews throughout is a red flag, someone is trying to make their app look good to use.
iii. Burst reviews(so many reviews at only a certain period of time) can also mean fake reviews
4.
Enable 2 Factor Verifications for all your exchange accounts and emailsThis will make it hard for the hacker to get into your exchange accounts and emails.
Be safe with your cryptos folks.