Beware of Impostor Messaging Apps: Potential for Financial Loss High

Signal and Telegram are the secure messaging apps on the market, trusted by millions to communicate without the risk of being tracked. But people probably find it disturbing that these two apps have fake versions in public. According to reports, apps called Signal Plus Messenger and FlyGram have nothing to do with their names and actually act as spyware that can steal your banking information, which can help bad actors steal money from your account.

The app has been found on the Play Store, even Samsung’s Galaxy Store, and other third-party app stores where you can download apps to your Android phone. Both companies claim that the apps have now been removed from their respective App Stores, but not until 100 users have downloaded the apps in the past nine months since they were first listed.

ESET, a cyber security company, warned companies about these fake apps. They claim that anyone who has downloaded these apps has their phone infected with malware.

In addition to this, apps can also access important details such as the phone’s contact information, the device owner’s Google account, and the ability to read their call logs. And if that wasn’t scary enough, according to researchers, attackers can easily back up all data to a server under their control, and the victim is helpless to stop them from doing so.

The security company is asking people using these apps to remove them immediately. Although these apps have been removed by Google, the malware can also affect the people using them, so it is important that they uninstall the app and definitely factory reset the phone to ensure that all traces of the malware are removed from the device.

Fake apps are common on Android and the only way to avoid falling for these malicious apps is to install apps that look genuine. Here are some basic ways to know that:

– Install from the official app store or Play Store

– Please double check before installing the APK file on your Android phone

– Check the developer of the app and see their official website for more details

– Also keep an eye on the data and permissions the app takes on your device