8 Warning Flags to Help You Find Fraudulent Apps

Getty Facebook Twitter LinkedIn In this story Scammers seek you • Use app stores • ‘Freemium’ hidden fees • Read comments • Beware of others • Don’t send money • Stay in safe place • Limit

sharing • Run security software • Spyware and stalkerware

There’s a frightening reality when it comes to fraud: The bad guys generally know where to find you.

And crooks are snookering victims through myriad apps that people willingly download onto their smartphones. App fraud takes different forms:

Some apps carrying malware or malicious code are copycats if not outright fakes.Some provide what is promised in their descriptions but lure you with free trials that quickly convert into

costly and difficult-to-cancel subscriptions.Some fleece consumers for services that are free or inexpensive elsewhere.

And sometimes scammers exploit perfectly legitimate apps from reputable developers for nefarious purposes — to steal your data, identity or money.

“Facebook started with good intentions to connect people from all over the world, but we know it’s a hotbed for scams. Same with LinkedIn, Instagram, Words With Friends, any of those

spaces,” says Amy Nofziger, director of victim support for the AARP Fraud Watch Network. “Where people are at, the scammers will meet you there, and they will use them to their

advantage.”

Folks download apps for lots of swell reasons: convenience, entertainment, social networking, utility and because they may even save money. The prevalence of apps fraud is not a reason to

ditch them.

But you should not have a false sense of security because you are using an app instead of patrolling cyberspace on your PC or reading suspicious emails. In those situations, you may have

been conditioned to be more cautious.

Here are some of the warning flags of potentially fraudulent apps, along with steps to minimize the risk.

“The biggest threat as far as getting a downright malicious app is getting it from a website instead of an app store,” said Christopher Budd, former senior global threat communications

manager at Avast, a digital security firm headquartered in the Czech Republic. Budd strongly recommends sticking with Apple’s App Store for iOS and the Google Play Store for Android.

Even so, the risks are generally elevated on Android, experts suggest. Apple makes app developers go through tighter hoops before inviting them into its App Store.

Android apps have a potentially less secure “open source” flavor. Open source software can be modified and shared because its design is publicly available. 

Historically, if an Android version of a popular iOS app lagged, “the bad people would jump in during that window of opportunity and start offering their malicious look-alike for Android

before the actual legitimate one came out,” said Budd, who now leads a cybersecurity team at the United Kingdom-based Sophos security firm.