{"id":100155,"date":"2018-04-24T20:05:20","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T20:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=100155"},"modified":"2025-07-01T23:31:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T06:31:47","slug":"how-to-detect-fake-apps-in-the-google-play-store-in-just-3-steps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/how-to-detect-fake-apps-in-the-google-play-store-in-just-3-steps\/","title":{"rendered":"How to detect fake apps in the Google Play Store in just 3 steps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google\u00a0is facing an uphill battle, trying to keep fake apps from ending up in their virtual store. But even the best algorithms can fail, and good proof of this is what happened recently with a fake version of WhatsApp that thousands of people downloaded within a few days. At Softonic, we care about your cell phone\u2019s health, so we\u2019re going to show you <\/span>how to detect fake apps in the Google Play Store in just three steps.<\/b> But before we get started, an explanation:<\/span><\/p>\n

Why are they created?<\/b><\/h3>\n

We\u2019ll be quick: fake apps are created with the sole purpose of infecting your smartphone. There are exceptions, of course, but they\u2019re called \u201cexceptions\u201d for a reason: the general rule is that these apps have malicious code that is inserted into your device. They extract personal data, ads appear without permission, etc.<\/strong> If you download one, it’s a total mess.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Fake WhatsApp downloaded by more than 1 million users<\/p>\r\n Learn more now<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

Pay attention to the name and company<\/b><\/h3>\n

Two apps can\u2019t have the same name. <\/b>In some way, a copycat app must be different from the original. Check the name of each app carefully, since somewhere you\u2019ll find the detail: an extra (or missing) letter, a logo in another color, a spelling error that changes everything, etc. <\/span><\/p>\n

Likewise, the<\/span> name of the company<\/b> is another important sign. If you look carefully at the developer, you\u2019ll find this second detail to check. Official companies usually have well-crafted profiles and respond to requests.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Comments<\/b><\/h3>\n

The second step to detect a fake app is the <\/span>comments section<\/b>. Yes, we know what you\u2019re going to say: the Google Play Store isn\u2019t exactly known to have a community exuding positivity and optimism, but when an app is fake, you\u2019ll thank us. <\/span><\/p>\n

Comments and ratings are <\/span>key<\/b> telltale signs<\/b>. If you see very low ratings and comments emphasizing that \u201cthis app is fake,\u201d we recommend that you pay attention\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
\nGoogle Play Protect<\/b><\/h3>\n

Google finally launched its own antivirus for Android under the name Google Play Protect<\/a>. It\u2019s a good way to know if an app is fake. The problem is that if you run the antivirus on an app\u2026 it may be too late. Lucky for you, there\u2019s a previous step where it\u2019s not necessary to download the app you\u2019re uncertain about.<\/span><\/p>\n

A few months ago, <\/span>Google Play Protect started integrating into the Google Play Store platform, <\/b>i.e. the store. We say this because now the most popular apps appear with a banner that says: \u201cVerified by Play Protect.\u201d If you get this logo and message, you\u2019re almost certainly accessing the right app. Of course, hackers continue to get around this protection and Google continues changing their algorithms. Don’t forget, it can still fail you.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Google\u00a0is facing an uphill battle, trying to keep fake apps from ending up in their virtual store. But even the best algorithms can fail, and good proof of this is what happened recently with a fake version of WhatsApp that thousands of people downloaded within a few days. At Softonic, we care about your cell … Continue reading “How to detect fake apps in the Google Play Store in just 3 steps”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9091,"featured_media":100296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":1},"categories":[2441],"tags":[2422,1049],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-100155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to","tag-app-subdomain-redirectiongoogle-play","tag-google-play-store"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9091"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328044,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100155\/revisions\/328044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100155"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=100155"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=100155"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=100155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}