Fake Whatsapp Was Downloaded More Than 1 Million Times From Google Play

There has been a fake version of the WhatsApp messenger app that was updated on the Google play. It has been downloaded more than a million times from the Google Play Store before it was removed. Fake Whatsapp Was Downloaded More Than 1 Million Times From Google Play.

Fake Whatsapp Was Downloaded More Than 1 Million Times From Google Play

It appears that the app, “Update WhatsApp Messenger” has been developed Whatsapp Inc, firm behind the real program. As users reported, the fake Whatsapp update was a Trojan horse, which is a program that claims to be a genuine program but instead introduces viruses onto your computer. The fake App has now been removed from the Play Store.

The real WhatsApp developer ID URL looks like this:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=WhatsApp+Inc

Whereas the fake WhatsApp developer ID URL looked like this:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=WhatsApp+Inc.%C2%A0

The developers did this by using that exact name as mentioned in the URL, though replacing the space with a special character that looks like a space. This minor difference would have been undetectable to the normal WhatsApp user.

According to the experts, the users receiving automatic updates  through the real WhatsApp would not have been affected.

This is not for the first time that the Google has had to clean up fake malicious apps on the Play Store. In 2015, the firm had to  block one program that disguised itself as a battery monitor and sent premium-rate text messages from people’s phones.

With the increasing development of cyber crime, the Social Media titans have to work harder to protect their reputation in order to maintain their place in the market.

SEE ALSO: Google Redesign Mobile Web by Adding Brighter & Curve Interfaces