TL;DR
- A fraudulent app masquerading as WhatsApp has been available on the Play Store since September.
- The offending app has been downloaded more than 500,000 times.
- This comes after a similar situation with a fake Chrome app earlier this week.
Imposter apps are getting to be an issue on the Play Store. Earlier this week, we reported on a fake Google Chrome app that had racked up more than 100,000 downloads before being delisted. Today, we’re taking a look at a fraudulent version of WhatsApp that, as of publication, still hasn’t been removed from Android’s app marketplace.
As shared by user 2ne1cheese on the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit, a lookalike listing for WhatsApp is showing up in the sponsored results section of searches for the genuine article. This fake version of the app has apparently been downloaded half a million times, according to the Play Store.