Be cautious when you download apps! The app stores are crowded with of fake apps that will take your passwords and personal information. These fakers may access your phone’s camera and microphone, listening in on your conversations and watching your every move.
Fake apps do everything from pop-up ad scams and alerts to collecting your private information. From tracking texts to activating the camera, there is a clear privacy concern for users. You may be getting hacked without even knowing it. Users of banking and shopping apps should be especially concerned about these fake apps accessing home addresses and credit card information. Even the simple action of requesting directions could give fraudsters information about your location. Your web use can be tracked. Fake banking, cryptocurrency, and messaging apps are the latest of many breaches that have exploited unknowing consumers.
Castro, Miguel. 2018.
To protect your information: check if there are any strange apps on your home screen that you don’t remember downloading. Users should head to the their settings and analyze downloaded apps for abnormalities or apps that don’t show up on the home screen.
Check the number of app reviews. When comparing app reviews, proper spelling is a great indicator because misspelled or limited reviews are a sign of a fake app. Check your system settings and beware of strange downloads to ensure you don’t become part of the 4.2 million who have downloaded sketchy apps. If you think that you have a fake app lurking in your phone’s memory, the best course of action is to go into your system settings and perform a factory reset on your phone which is the only way real way to erase that cheating app.
