{"id":145291,"date":"2019-07-23T18:19:19","date_gmt":"2019-07-23T18:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=145291"},"modified":"2025-07-01T21:39:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T04:39:24","slug":"fake-faceapp-security-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/fake-faceapp-security-warning\/","title":{"rendered":"FaceApp security warning: fake versions spreading"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FaceApp<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t seen an aged version of a friend or family member recently you\u2019ve either been living in a cave somewhere or you’ve possibly been the victim of some sort of unknown EMP-type event<\/a>. FaceApp has taken the internet by storm with its realistic AI aging filter. FaceApp is an AI-powered photo manipulation app<\/a> that has a few different filters, but it is the aging filter that has garnered so much popularity recently.<\/p>\n

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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\u2019re one of those people or you know somebody who might be one of them remember this; there is no premium version of FaceApp.<\/strong> If you find a premium version of FaceApp it is a scam.<\/p>\n

Researchers have discovered a number of different scams relating to FaceApp<\/h2>\n

The first scam highlighted by security researcher Lukas Stefanko<\/a> on the We Live Security blog<\/a> relates to a fake pro version of FaceApp like the one detailed above. The \u201cpro\u201d version of the app is advertised on a fake website.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s worse, the \u201cpro\u201d version is advertised as a \u201cfree premium\u201d app, which doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

\"This
Image via: We Live Security<\/a> – Beware of fake FaceApp pro websites like this one<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After what must have seemed like an eternity\u2019s worth of clicks, all Stefanko and his team ended up with was the regular version FaceApp that is available on the Google Play Store.<\/p>\n

Another scam Stefanko\u2019s 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 \u201cpro\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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FaceApp PRO apps from YouTube gets you in trouble<\/p>\n

Two scams:
\n1)Fake websites (iOS & Android): deliver ads,surveys, subscription,PPI,unrelated browser notifications.<\/p>\n

2)Fake apps: From YouTube videos with link to adware
\nIn one case with 95,000+ link clickshttps:\/\/t.co\/SMciu9NWT7<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/DTB9HsFtX0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Lukas Stefanko (@LukasStefanko) July 19, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>. Although, this isn\u2019t the case with any of the shortened links the We Live Security team found, relating to the fake \u201cpro\u201d versions of FaceApp, we still need to be careful.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Image via: We Live Security – Looking for a “pro” version of FaceApp will only ever find you spam ads like this one or something worse.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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<\/a>, that we should all remember when there is a viral app doing the rounds. \u201cHype 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.<\/p>\n

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.\u201d Fake apps are a common problem, but they\u2019re particularly dangerous when everybody is talking about the newest big thing.<\/p>\n

If you want a more detailed explanation on how to avoid fake apps in the Google Play Store check out the short guide we\u2019ve written below.<\/p>\n

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How to detect fake apps in the Google Play Store in just 3 steps<\/p>\r\n Read now<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

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Read more<\/p>\r\n

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New scam spotted on the Google Play Store \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n

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Security alert: new Netflix phishing scams \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n

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This ingenious phishing scam is targeting iPhone users \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n

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New year, new scams: what to watch out for in 2019 \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers have discovered a number of different scams relating to FaceApp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9073,"featured_media":145312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":1},"categories":[1015],"tags":[1401,2678,1126,1710,1027],"usertag":[839],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-145291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ai","tag-app-subdomain-redirectionfaceapp","tag-online","tag-photo-editing-apps","tag-security","usertag-vpn"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145291","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\/9073"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":325677,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145291\/revisions\/325677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145291"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=145291"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=145291"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=145291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}