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Sophos has signalled that it found a bunch of fake Android and iOS apps used to attack and steal money from crypto traders and Android users.
These apps offer financial trading, banking, or cryptocurrency service under the pretext of trusted companies.
A report from Sophos tagged “Fake Android and iOS apps disguised as trading and cryptocurrency apps”, says that the attackers engage victims radically.
More so, they have fake websites, a bogus iOS App Store download page, and an iOS app-testing website for the distribution of apps to naive individuals.
According to the findings by Sophos, these fake apps have several similarities and function almost the same way.
In addition to the functionalities of these apps, Sophos said that the 167 fake trading and cryptocurrency apps are most likely connected to the same server.
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How to identify fraudulent apps for Android and iOS users
Sophos researchers further disclosed the techniques used by the app operators. There appears to have been a practice of making friends with unsuspecting individuals and efforts to scam them.
The operators make use of dating apps, set up a profile and exchange messages with targets who they encourage to instal the fake apps.
Individuals who successfully establish accounts on the cryptocurrency fake app could also need to add money to begin trading.
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However, the operators block victims from gaining accesss to their accounts when they try to make withdrawals.
The fake iOS App Store download page also features convincing fake customer reviews to get targets to think they are genuine.
Jagadeesh Chandraiah, Senior Threat Researcher at Sophos said that “To avoid falling prey to such malicious apps, users should only install apps from trusted sources such as Google Play and Apple’s app store.”
