On dark-web forums, hackers and small-time digital advertisers offer developers around $1 per user per year to inject their apps with malicious code. It does not harm users directly, but researchers warn that such “vampire” apps drain phone batteries.ĭevelopers can make much more money with fake apps than through legitimate means, reckons Mr Sapir. Analysts at Trend Micro, a cybersecurity firm, in 2014 discovered that copies of Football Manager Handheld, a smartphone game, and TuneIn Radio, an audio app, contained malicious software that mined cryptocurrencies, the proceeds of which were probably funneled to the developers. Adverts in the smartphone’s web browser get quietly replaced by similar ones chosen by the fake-app developer.Īnother money-spinner is to mine cryptocurrencies. But it is more common for scams to profit from ordinary advertising, particularly on Android devices, says Eliran Sapir of Apptopia, a tech firm. The most egregious are designed to steal the passwords that unlock users’ bank accounts. The malware facilitates various money-making schemes. Academics from a research group, SerVal, at the University of Luxembourg, estimate that around a fifth of all Android app-based malware is hidden in fake apps. Google says it is reviewing these apps and will take action where necessary.įake apps are often stuffed with malicious code. These included ones with tweaked names (“MyGoogleTranslate” rather than “Google Translate”) and a bogus Netflix app that uses a weird Halloween-themed font for the logo. The Economist found that half of the 50 top-selling apps in Google Play had fakes. Other developers simply copy an existing app and hope users will fail to notice.

Three imitation apps have by now sprouted under the shop’s name. RadioShack, an American electronics retailer that filed for bankruptcy in February 2015, has a website but not an official app. Selfridges, a chain of British fashion stores, for instance, has a legitimate app for Apple devices but not for Android ones. In third-party app stores, unofficial platforms run by someone other than the two tech giants, the problem is even worse. Google and Apple police their app stores but many impostors get through. Such fake apps are designed by crafty developers to trick inattentive users. Its developer, Style Apps, has also launched apps for other clothing brands that are household names in America. But the app is not authorised by the brand, is littered with pop-up ads and is painfully slow (furious users gave it one-star ratings).

Released on Google Play, a shop for Android software, on September 5th, it has the right logo, the correct vibrant colour and offers fashionable clothes and accessories. THE new app for an upmarket British department store certainly looks the part.

Fake app names