Mobile app drained users

[bitterguy28]

An app in Google Play disguised under the name of Walletconnect was able to steal over $70,000 from 150 users over only a couple of months the app allows people to connect their wallets into dapps and the fake app was downloaded for about 10,000 times but not everyone used the service because of suspicion.

The company says that this is the first time that a mobile app is exclusively used to steal from mobile users this is alarming because it was on google play and not everyone could have seen that it was fake and thought of it as legitimate since it is on the famous Google Play.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-wallet-drainer-google-play-stole-70k-check-point

[TomPluz]

No matter how strict and meticulous Google Play is, they can still be fooled around and hereby allowed a scam app to victimize people. In my view, this is one big reason that Google Play should have an insurance system so that in case something can be undetected and was able to scam people's money there can be a fallback victims can go to. The way I am seeing it, this is a big challenge to Google and make this the last one on this nature. I am expected a lot from Google Play but this time around they failed their users.

[PrivateKayla]

Crypto users need to research before downloading apps, especially for wallets. We shouldn't rely on Google Play reviews and must take time to ask in forums, read articles, etc.

[_act_]

The company says that this is the first time that a mobile app is exclusively used to steal from mobile users this is alarming because it was on google play and not everyone could have seen that it was fake and thought of it as legitimate since it is on the famous Google Play.

Do not mind this lie. Or is it not Google Play store that you are talking about? We have seen countless numbers of fake apps on the app store. Also apple application store is not better either. Google and those other app stores are not concerned about their users security at all. That is why they do not review apps before they are uploaded on their app store. There are many fake apps on their sites.

[target]

I think this is not the first time people download apps from Google play and found out too late that its stealing from them. There have been incidents in the past.

I didn't read the article actually, it's often just an app unknown mostl regular crypto users but those new in crypto will be victimized because they are in a hurry to connect their wallet.

[bitterguy28]

this is one big reason that Google Play should have an insurance system so that in case something can be undetected and was able to scam people's money there can be a fallback victims can go to. The way I am seeing it, this is a big challenge to Google and make this the last one on this nature. I am expected a lot from Google Play but this time around they failed their users.

the thing is though from what i know their only fault is allowing such app to be published but what the users of the app experience within the platform is no longer under the jurisdiction of google play store i am pretty sure that they have policies that state the responsibilities of the users of an app it is also on us to make sure that we do not fall victim to these kind of apps

[ABCbits]

The full news stated the application exist on Play Store for about 5 months. I'm aware Google can't catch all fake or malicious application, but it's crazy it took about 5 months. Anyway, it's another reason to do more research and preferring popular application.

[MrSpasybo]

I think this is not the first time people download apps from Google play and found out too late that its stealing from them. There have been incidents in the past.

I didn't read the article actually, it's often just an app unknown mostl regular crypto users but those new in crypto will be victimized because they are in a hurry to connect their wallet.

This event once again highlights the risks within the crypto market, particularly regarding scams through crypto wallet apps. There are several measures we can take to safeguard our personal crypto assets:

1. Always access the project's website and download the app from their official information. This is safer than searching for the app on Google Play or the App Store.

2. Use one account to store the majority of your crypto assets, and only use sub-accounts to interact with protocols in the market, including DEXs, GameFi, NFTs, and more.

[Kemarit]

Anything goes on Google play though, it's not as strict as compare to Apple that's why it's the favorite of this cyber criminals, not just in crpyto, but those state sponsored cyber hacking groups that is going after the other government top secret by trying to phish employees, hence social engineering attack.

Just to bad that it take sometime before it has been caught, as a lot of money has been drained by this criminals and hopefully this will stop and none of us here are affecting and lose our hard earn money to this criminals.

[robelneo]

This is very alarming, People trust Google play to protect them from these malicious applications and this happen, This is a big warning sign to not trust Google Play and do your research elsewhere on indepemdent trustworthy platforms.
Reviews can be fake, and this case its a planned and orchestrated review, so it will gain a good ranking in the search engine.
There's a possibility of a repeat of this scenario.

[Asiska02]

This is surprising because even myself couldn’t have though the google play can allow an app like that to be used on their space. Although, technology is advancing and they may have done their own scrutiny of the app and this people were just a little smarter than them to have got to steal from those that used those apps. This is just an alarming warning that scammers are on the go and have also find another means to steal from people. Good to share the news, it’ll serve  as a way to help mitigate such occurrence in the future.

[electronicash]

This is very alarming, People trust Google play to protect them from these malicious applications and this happen, This is a big warning sign to not trust Google Play and do your research elsewhere on indepemdent trustworthy platforms.
Reviews can be fake, and this case its a planned and orchestrated review, so it will gain a good ranking in the search engine.
There's a possibility of a repeat of this scenario.

this ruins its reputation. its alarming especially because it didn't happen just once. the istore as alternative however is also proprietary which not everyone can use. i tried aurora store i am also unsure whether its reliable. if all else will have these kind of malicious apps, might as well just stop installing wallet app using the phones. as ts not safe.

if those devs took $70k easy by just making people download their app, i wouldn't be surprise the next will be bigger such as fake popular wallet.

[Z-tight]

not everyone could have seen that it was fake and thought of it as legitimate since it is on the famous Google Play.

Famous google playstore you say? Maybe famous for housing scam and phishing applications, that is what they are kind of famous for, there are so many fake apps on google playstore and i am surprised that someone thought an app is legitimate because they found it there. So sorry for the victims, but they should know better than to connect their wallet to any application or whatever, too risky in my opinion.

[Captain Corporate]

Quite simple method and very interesting to see these type of things happening at all times. I think its quite clear that we are going to see some similar stuff that would not be all that complicated neither, because this is just people being stupid basically. I understand that we are going to end up with a lot more dangerous stuff in the future that would be very hard to suspect, so we need to be more careful than this. If we are fooled by these simple stuff, then how are we going to protect ourselves when more advanced versions happen? There is really no way of exactly knowing on those, this one is easy to see way beforehand.

[bitterguy28]

1. Always access the project's website and download the app from their official information. This is safer than searching for the app on Google Play or the App Store.

there is still risk in doing this because there are so many websites out there far more than there are apps in google play/app store so it is important that you also check what are the official and legitimate websites in order to not download viruses or malware always check the domain name and assess the website if it has anything suspicious on its interface

2. Use one account to store the majority of your crypto assets, and only use sub-accounts to interact with protocols in the market, including DEXs, GameFi, NFTs, and more.

yup do not use just one account, one device for crypto if you really want to ensure safety and security