Among the fake applications for mobile devices in the Russian segment, there appears to be an increase in the number of fake applications in the financial services category. Dmitry Sakov, group leader of the Digital Economy League testing laboratory, told socialbites.ca.
“This growth is to some extent related to the blocking of official applications of banks subject to sanctions. “As for global trends, here fake financial applications are being added to applications from stores and chatbots with artificial intelligence,” the expert said.
The largest number of fakes can be found on Google Play: this is due to relatively simple conditions for checking applications before their release. However, we should not ignore that fake products can be found in any store, including the App Store.
“There are several characteristics to look for to identify a fake banking app. Fake products can often be identified by the date of last publication. You should then read reviews, where there may be negative reviews indicating that it is fake. A large number of positive reviews should also raise suspicion; perhaps they are fake,” he added. Sakov.
Real apps are often downloaded tens of thousands or even millions of times; Therefore, a small number of downloads should raise red flags.
“It is useful to analyze the name and icon: The design of fake applications may differ from the real one in small details. You should pay attention to spelling mistakes and grammatical errors; these are unlikely to be acceptable for the practice of serious, self-respecting organizations. And the last thing that will help identify a fake is the name of the developer. Most of the time, the developer of a real app is a company, while a fake one is an individual. “The surest way to avoid fraudulent downloads is to install the app from the official website, usually using a link that leads to the page in the store,” he concluded.
Russians before warned About Android apps that steal money.