If you haven’t seen an aged version of a friend or family member recently you’ve either been living in a cave somewhere or you’ve possibly been the victim of some sort of unknown EMP-type event. FaceApp has taken the internet by storm with its realistic AI aging filter. FaceApp is an AI-powered photo manipulation app that has a few different filters, but it is the aging filter that has garnered so much popularity recently.
The FaceApp aging filter has become so popular that there are plenty of people out there who would be willing to pay for a premium version of the free app. If you’re one of those people or you know somebody who might be one of them remember this; there is no premium version of FaceApp. If you find a premium version of FaceApp it is a scam.
Researchers have discovered a number of different scams relating to FaceApp
The first scam highlighted by security researcher Lukas Stefanko on the We Live Security blog relates to a fake pro version of FaceApp like the one detailed above. The “pro” version of the app is advertised on a fake website.
What’s worse, the “pro” version is advertised as a “free premium” app, which doesn’t even make any sense. All the website will do is push users to click an endless number of ads, sign up to various subscriptions, and view special offers for other paid apps.
After what must have seemed like an eternity’s worth of clicks, all Stefanko and his team ended up with was the regular version FaceApp that is available on the Google Play Store.
Another scam Stefanko’s team have uncovered comes via YouTube videos. Their blog post shows a YouTube video that has well over 150,000 views, which again describes a fake “pro” version of FaceApp. The YouTube videos also contain shortened links in their descriptions where users can download the fake apps. In reality, much like with the fake website scam, these only lead users to apps that are simply designed to deliver ads to the unsuspecting user.
FaceApp PRO apps from YouTube gets you in trouble
Two scams:
1)Fake websites (iOS & Android): deliver ads,surveys, subscription,PPI,unrelated browser notifications.2)Fake apps: From YouTube videos with link to adware
In one case with 95,000+ link clickshttps://t.co/SMciu9NWT7 pic.twitter.com/DTB9HsFtX0— Lukas Stefanko (@LukasStefanko) July 19, 2019
What’s worse about these YouTube scams is that shortened links offer scammers a great way to make people go to sites that are infected with malware.
Shortened links can hide a lot of the key giveaways that we should look out for when we suspect a link could be fake or malicious. Although, this isn’t the case with any of the shortened links the We Live Security team found, relating to the fake “pro” versions of FaceApp, we still need to be careful.
The key takeaway here is to not allow ourselves to become too carried away by viral hype and lose our senses in the process. Stefanko has this important message, that we should all remember when there is a viral app doing the rounds. “Hype attracts scammers, and the bigger the wave, the higher the risk of falling victim of a scam. Before joining the hype, users should remember to stick to basic security principles.
Regardless how exciting the topic is, avoid downloading apps from sources other than official app stores, and examine available information about the app (developer, rating, reviews, etc.). Especially in the Android ecosystem.” Fake apps are a common problem, but they’re particularly dangerous when everybody is talking about the newest big thing.
If you want a more detailed explanation on how to avoid fake apps in the Google Play Store check out the short guide we’ve written below.
How to detect fake apps in the Google Play Store in just 3 steps
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