WhatsApp is one of the applications that have the biggest number of users in the world. And it appears that some coders want to use that for their own benefit. Recently, a fake WhatsApp messenger has been discovered by Reddit users on Google Play. The application looked just like the original one and it already had more than 1 million downloads.
This news led to more discoveries, and it appears that there are even more copies available on the Google Play Store. While this one was the most believable, the others had a fair share of downloads as well.
The WhatsApp copies
The fake application managed to trick users because the developer’s name appeared to be the same one. However, there was one invisible space after the name, and no one was aware of it. The fake messenger has numerous ads which were obviously quite inconvenient for the users, but profitable for the developer of the app. After the app has been discovered, the developer finally changed the name to their own
The other WhatsApp copies that are available on Google Play Store all come with small variations when it comes to the name of the developer. “WhatsApp Inc.” is written in similar ways, but it small differences such as commas, extra spaces or asterisk. It is even more worrisome that these applications come with a four-star review average.
Google security measure
Users have been complaining about Google for a while now. When it comes to the Google Play Store, the security measures are not strict enough and many suspicious apps pass under the rather. Other fake applications have been discovered and there were even some that brought malware on the users’ devices. Many believe that Google Play needs to protect their users better than this. (https://www.genusinnovation.com)
