Reminder of possible fake app download on application stores

[_act_]

I could remember when Electrum fake wallets were common on Google Playstore. There were many other wallets with fake apps on Android. People offen report it of which I guess most many reports are from people on this forum because they can easily know the right and the fake app.

Have you noticed that App Store is bombarded with Apple fake apps now and these fake apps are common than before. I saw another one on Cointelegraph just not long ago but which is about Curve Financial which is a decentralized finance protocol.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/fake-curve-finance-app-listed-apple-store


Any app can be cloned and fake in order to scam some people. Use the official site to download a software or just make sure the app you are about to download have been downloaded by many people like above 100000 people before you proceed to download it.

[Die_empty]

Any app can be cloned and fake in order to scam some people. Use the official site to download a software or just make sure the app you are about to download have been downloaded by many people like above 100000 people before you proceed to download it.

Thank you for this information. Downloading information from a legitimate website of the service provider is very important. I know of a friend who lost all his funds because he downloaded a fake wallet. However, I am not too comfortable with the second recommendation that we should ensure that many people have downloaded the software. I am scared that the number of downloads might not be a strong indication of genuineness. Don't you think these figures can be inflated, I might be wrong. However, I have seen people offer services to increase the views or likes of a social media account in a bid to gain a reputation. In this era of artificial intelligence, I think there might be a machine that can manipulate the number of downloads.        

[EL MOHA]

Any app can be cloned and fake in order to scam some people. Use the official site to download a software or just make sure the app you are about to download have been downloaded by many people like above 100000 people before you proceed to download it.

Google play store is just a den for just anything, I don’t even understand the criterias needed to be passed before you get your apps on play store, any of this criteria seems weak to me. I remember long time ago when I was comfortable downloading apps from there because I was with the narrative that they wouldn’t have fake apps verified there not until I meet many of them.

Concerning the ratings it might still be a way to phish out fake wallets but this days scammers have actually gotten a way to get Those numbers they do it in such a that they set a referral for people to download that wallet and then they get the required number and ratings and later scam people. The best is to find an app that you can verify and stop downloading just any app if it is not something you need you can access through website.

[Cookdata]

I could remember when Electrum fake wallets were common on Google Playstore. There were many other wallets with fake apps on Android. People offen report it of which I guess most many reports are from people on this forum because they can easily know the right and the fake app.

Have you noticed that App Store is bombarded with Apple fake apps now and these fake apps are common than before. I saw another one on Cointelegraph just not long ago but which is about Curve Financial which is a decentralized finance protocol.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/fake-curve-finance-app-listed-apple-store


Any app can be cloned and fake in order to scam some people. Use the official site to download a software or just make sure the app you are about to download have been downloaded by many people like above 100000 people before you proceed to download it.

I used to think Apps upload on Appstore are been thoroughly and carefully review before they are been accepted to be upload and allow for people to access it, it seems they have no idea about how these wallets even work, the just check some basic requirements which the scammers must have study and gave them what they want and hide the big bug that will do the dirty job for them. I think they need to investigate this, learned from what they missed out or better still employ a good crypto enthusiast who have experience in open source code review and understand how to spot line of code that can harm people.


As for we that used to think apple phone are superior because android are thrash with Google play store, we need to be careful and observed well before we download app that might harm us with any sort of malware or just buy a hardware wallet to avoid all this kind of problems, your hardware wallet or air gap device will save you from been a victim of these scammers.

[Queentoshi]

Have you noticed that App Store is bombarded with Apple fake apps now and these fake apps are common than before.

I recently noticed these fake apps, some of them mostly with the same names or very closely related names as the original apps, but with different icon. To avoid downloading fake apps with copy names or closely related names, I always ask for the person recommending an app to me to send the screenshot of the app icon that they have, so I do not miss it. I know some fake apps can go as far as copying the icons too, nothing is hard for scammers to do.

[BitMaxz]

Any app can be cloned and fake in order to scam some people. Use the official site to download a software or just make sure the app you are about to download have been downloaded by many people like above 100000 people before you proceed to download it.

I have an experienced before on downloading a fake app even if they have good reviews and many downloads counts it doesn't mean that the app you downloaded is the legit one because they can easily manipulate this including reviews.

For me, to make sure to download the legit app make sure to go to the official site and click the link there instead of searching it through the apple AppStore or PlayStore. That's way better or if better research the developer if it came from the real developer of that app.

[sunsilk]

I am not an iOS user but it's very likely that it will definitely be the place where these cons will find their next victims. As known with Google playstore, there have been bunch of fake apps that have victimized a lot of newbies.

This only means that there's really no safe place at all when you're ignorant of their existence and thank you for notifying that as many iOS/Apple users are here for sure.

And not just here, globally. I hope that news like this will be read by them so that they will also be aware of these fake apps on the apple store.

[Dr.Bitcoin_Strange]

Well, you are correct about too many fake apps on the Google Play Store. I don't even download too many apps on my phone unless it's an app that I really need to perform an action with or those that are very important for daily use. Again, before downloading an app from Google Play, it is very important to take note of the app rating and feedback. If the app is a total mess, you will definitely find yourself lots of reviews and feedback from people who really had a bad experience with that app. Secondly, after downloading any of those apps, never be quick to allow the app to access your file, gallery, GPS, camera, and other important actions that the app will ask you to grant  access to. Only give access when you are very sure that the app is the same as the one that was recommended to you. 

[alastantiger]

Any app can be cloned and fake in order to scam some people. Use the official site to download a software or just make sure the app you are about to download have been downloaded by many people like above 100000 people before you proceed to download it.

This isn't the first time I am reading of this. I have once downloaded a fake app from Google Playstore that upon installation, it was riddled with ads here and there all over my screen. I immediately deleted them. I think that Google is not able to keep up with and monitor properly these fake apps. The worse that can happen with downloading a fake app is downloading a fake app that has a malware.

Yes, we can all play our small part in getting rid of these fake apps by reporting them to thea original developer who you then be able to take them down.

[Moreno233]

I could remember when Electrum fake wallets were common on Google Playstore. There were many other wallets with fake apps on Android. People offen report it of which I guess most many reports are from people on this forum because they can easily know the right and the fake app.

Have you noticed that App Store is bombarded with Apple fake apps now and these fake apps are common than before. I saw another one on Cointelegraph just not long ago but which is about Curve Financial which is a decentralized finance protocol.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/fake-curve-finance-app-listed-apple-store


Any app can be cloned and fake in order to scam some people. Use the official site to download a software or just make sure the app you are about to download have been downloaded by many people like above 100000 people before you proceed to download it.

Thank you for bringing this to our notice. I have also been worried about the safety of apps from play stores but I do not really know anything one can do to avoid installing fake apps and getting scammed or his data stolen.

It will be nice you share any tips on how to identify these fake apps so that people will be better protected by avoiding those apps. Now I am more terrified than I was before I use Android phone and I downloaded most of my applications from Google Playstore.

[OcTradism]

Any app can be cloned and fake in order to scam some people. Use the official site to download a software or just make sure the app you are about to download have been downloaded by many people like above 100000 people before you proceed to download it.

Exactly!

Don't search directly on application stores (Apple Store or Google Play) but go to official website (if you know it) and get download links from the site.

If you don't know the official website, search with Coinmarketcap.com, Coingecko.com and Google, then compare result with each other, to make sure you get an official website, not a phishing site.

Officially visit websites & download apps, not fake ones.

[Text]

This is a constant battle against scammers.
I also remember the Ethereum wallet situation on Google Play, and it's scary how easily users can be tricked.
We should also read reviews carefully, while fake reviews exist, genuine reviews can often reveal inconsistencies or red flags.
We should also scrutinize permissions, and be wary of apps requesting excessive or irrelevant permissions.

[Findingnemo]

Any app can be cloned and fake in order to scam some people. Use the official site to download a software or just make sure the app you are about to download have been downloaded by many people like above 100000 people before you proceed to download it.

Thank you for this information. Downloading information from a legitimate website of the service provider is very important. I know of a friend who lost all his funds because he downloaded a fake wallet. However, I am not too comfortable with the second recommendation that we should ensure that many people have downloaded the software. I am scared that the number of downloads might not be a strong indication of genuineness. Don't you think these figures can be inflated, I might be wrong. However, I have seen people offer services to increase the views or likes of a social media account in a bid to gain a reputation. In this era of artificial intelligence, I think there might be a machine that can manipulate the number of downloads.        

Downloading can be inflated too just like paid views for a video or post but in all store you can only download once and it count as one and you can't do multiple downloads for one device so it's either highly expensive to do such inflation on the other hand it is cheaper to market that app via reputed crypto platforms and social media influencers to get the actual download.

App store of Play Store likely take down the fake apps soon after it's being reported but I just want to laugh at the face of people who claim Apple's ecosystem is highly secured and so they are paying double or triple the times than it's cost.

[hd49728]

App store of Play Store likely take down the fake apps soon after it's being reported but I just want to laugh at the face of people who claim Apple's ecosystem is highly secured and so they are paying double or triple the times than it's cost.

It's bad policy to approve application listing quickly and let people exposed to fake apps, then waiting for reports from community before taking down fake apps.

Meanwhile, there are victims of fake applications who will lose money to those fake apps.

A better policy is more strictly with approval procedure and minimize fake apps as lowest as possible. It will help users to have less exposure to fake apps but users on their sides must know where to get download links and simple steps to verify what are possibly fake apps (low download numbers, bad reviews, etc.)

[Porfirii]

App store of Play Store likely take down the fake apps soon after it's being reported but I just want to laugh at the face of people who claim Apple's ecosystem is highly secured and so they are paying double or triple the times than it's cost.

It's bad policy to approve application listing quickly and let people exposed to fake apps, then waiting for reports from community before taking down fake apps.

Meanwhile, there are victims of fake applications who will lose money to those fake apps.

A better policy is more strictly with approval procedure and minimize fake apps as lowest as possible. It will help users to have less exposure to fake apps but users on their sides must know where to get download links and simple steps to verify what are possibly fake apps (low download numbers, bad reviews, etc.)

I still think that, except exceptions, App Store is safer than Play Store, which doesn't mean that users can trust and download anything they find there without the due diligence. In the case of the latter, however, I think that their business model is based more in quantity than quality, so safety concerns are structural.

Anyway, structural or circumstantial, these things happens, so always be alert.

[Findingnemo]

~

I still think that, except exceptions, App Store is safer than Play Store, which doesn't mean that users can trust and download anything they find there without the due diligence. In the case of the latter, however, I think that their business model is based more in quantity than quality, so safety concerns are structural.

Anyway, structural or circumstantial, these things happens, so always be alert.

App store is better than Play Store is just a delusion because for me both do the same but the branding of Apple making most of the people to believe that it is safer.

Even in Play Store the listing process is not that simple and I feel where things are more transparent but both Google and Apple lethargic when taking down fake apps even after lot of reports meanwhile we never know how much victims lost their life savings.

[SFR10]

There were many other wallets with fake apps on Android. People offen report it of which I guess most many reports are from people on this forum because they can easily know the right and the fake app.

I'd recommend regularly visiting the subreddits of these known wallet brands ^{[most of the time, such reports appear in their subreddits first]}.

Use the official site to download a software

It's worth noting that official websites are at constant risk of being compromised by hackers, so the first step should always be to verify their signatures before downloading them!

[qwertyup23]

Any app can be cloned and fake in order to scam some people. Use the official site to download a software or just make sure the app you are about to download have been downloaded by many people like above 100000 people before you proceed to download it.

Thank you for this information. Downloading information from a legitimate website of the service provider is very important. I know of a friend who lost all his funds because he downloaded a fake wallet. However, I am not too comfortable with the second recommendation that we should ensure that many people have downloaded the software. I am scared that the number of downloads might not be a strong indication of genuineness. Don't you think these figures can be inflated, I might be wrong. However, I have seen people offer services to increase the views or likes of a social media account in a bid to gain a reputation. In this era of artificial intelligence, I think there might be a machine that can manipulate the number of downloads.        

This deserves more spotlight as this will prevent any person from downloading fake and scam applications from their respective appstore or playstore.

Unfortunately, the only way for a person to prevent from downloading these scams is to double check the application and make very cautious decisions. They also have to remain vigilant as they should doubt every application until they have confirmed its authenticity by reading every posts/threads about it on this forum. This is the reason on why this forum was created- to inform others about potential scam applications and projects that may prevent a person from losing their funds in the process.

While I do pity your friend since he lost some BTCs, he should have doubled or even tripled check everything before he withdrew his money from a wallet.

[Crypt0Gore]

It's very simple to avoid this scam apps, don't use play store and Apple store to download any app, I can't even remember the last time I use play store to search for any app, I always download apps through official website, and they will lead me to the correct app, there is nothing you can do to get rid of all the fake apps on Apple store and Google store.

I have lost some BTC in the past using available bitcoin wallet on Google playstore, it's easier to search for any app using the available search engine, and you will get loads of results, the problem is that Google store don't verify those apps, they believe it's really not their job.

They should have just create a notice that users should download apps at their own risks instead, but some people won't know because they believe that Google is a big giant in this space, same as apple, now it's clear that they don't care, watch your back yourselves, don't use their platforms to find your next apps.

[Coyster]

Quite a lot of people think it is safe downloading wallet and crypto applications from App store, these people believe that scam and phishing applications can only be downloaded in Google playstore, but that is not correct, it is very possible to download scam applications from App store and lose your money through them.

now it's clear that they don't care, watch your back yourselves, don't use their platforms to find your next apps.[/b]

There is a process before apps are listed/published in their platforms, but the process is not enough to weed out all scam applications, quite a lot of them still get listed, thus do not count on the security of these platforms, verify and download your applications from their original websites.