OMG More than a million users have downloaded the wrong WhatsApp

More than a million users have downloaded the wrong WhatsApp

More than a million users around the world have downloaded a fake wrong version of the popular instant messenger WhatsApp.

The app was called "Update WhatsApp" and is still on the Play Store, although the developer has now changed its name to "Dual Whatsweb Update" and switched the icon, which doesn't look like the WhatsApp icon anymore. But before its facelift, the app mimicked WhatsApp in a clear attempt to trick users into downloading it thinking they were downloading an update for the popular messaging app, according to users who reviewed the app on the Play Store, and users on Reddit, who flagged the malicious app.

reported by  Motherboard 

Fake WhatsApp Update on #GooglePlay . Under the "same" dev name. Incl. a Unicode whitespace. One Million downloadshttps://t.co/qjqxd6n6HP pic.twitter.com/dmvTksqpuP

— Nikolaos Chrysaidos (@virqdroid) November 3, 2017

Most complaining users can not connect to the messenger and log in. In addition, problems have affected the sending and receiving of messages.

Failure is observed among users around the world. Complaints come from clients from European countries, India, Malaysia, Russia and Turkey.

Michael Kan

Fake Android apps are nothing new, and they're often used to spread malware on mobile phones. But the WhatsApp dummy product incident is worrisome because it doesn't appear that Google noticed the problem. Google Play rules don't allow apps to impersonate another brand title or logo. In addition, the company has been using new security measures to prevent malware from entering the platform.

Hackers have used similar tricks, like using Cyrillic alphabet letters in the place of English letters, to create legitimate-looking domain names.