Once it’s on people’s phones, the app talks to the third-party server to download the malware. This in itself isn’t malware, which allows the app to skirt under security. This is typically done by uploading a malware-free app with the capacity to talk to a third-party server. In terms of dodging Play Store’s malware detectors, developers have found ways to make their apps become malware after being uploaded to the Play Store. Now that you know what a fake app looks like, the question remains how are these apps even making it onto the app store in the first place? If you go to download a heavyweight app and see that the downloads are in the thousands, tens of thousands, or even millions, it’s a scam! You can check download counts in the following area of the app’s info. To put this into perspective, at the time of writing, the Facebook and WhatsApp apps have a download count of one- to five-billion hits each.
If you’re downloading a very popular app, you should be seeing very high download counts as a result. If they’re saying the app is fake and doesn’t do as it says it does, beware! 4.
Instead, look for what the negative reviews are saying. Don’t expect all-negative reviews, however part of a fake app’s disguise is to get fake five-star reviews to boost its credentials. See What People Are Sayingīe sure to check the reviews of a potentially fake app. Still, exercise caution with the developer name and don’t download anything with a suspicious name. This can get very tricky as per the WhatsApp article above, the developer name will be identical to the official developer’s name, except an “invisible” whitespace character is added to the end to make it different. If the developer name for the app doesn’t match what’s on the official site, you have a scam on your hands. If you can search online for the official developer’s name, this step becomes easier. Likewise, the developer may be different from the one you’re expecting.
Always double-check to see if you’re getting the right app. Why is an update being published on the app store this way rather than just updating the app? The idea is that people won’t pay much attention to the name they’ll just see the word “WhatsApp” and the official logo and queue it up for download without checking the details. One of the more successful fake app scams was over an app called “Update WhatsApp Messenger.” If you take some time to look at this app in a vacuum, you’ll see how suspicious it is. For one, make sure that the app shares the same name as the one you think you’re getting.
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