With Black Friday and Cyber Monday around the corner, consumers and retailers are gearing up for a busy shopping season. Meanwhile, experts caution that scammers may have a new trick up their sleeves: fake shopping apps.
[See: Prepare Your Finances for the Holidays.]
Mobile shopping may soon surpass shopping on a desktop. According to the “Holiday Predictions 2017” report from Adobe Analytics, which looked at 80 percent of online transactions at the largest 100 U.S. web retailers, the number of purchases made on a smartphone or tablet will outpace purchases made on a desktop this holiday season. Since consumers (and email filters) are savvier about email phishing schemes, it’s no wonder scammers are now going after a piece of the mobile commerce action.
Here’s how it works: A scammer creates an app claiming to be a retailer’s mobile shopping app or a third-party app promising huge discounts on name-brand merchandise. As you enter your credit card information on the platform, you think you’re shopping with a major retailer or getting a deal from a third-party company, but you’re actually handing over your sensitive data to crooks. Retailers don’t like these copycats either, because they damage the retailer’s own public image and degrade public trust.
Another twist on the rogue app scam is creating a copycat app and monetizing it through ads. Recently, over a million Android users reportedly downloaded a lookalike version of WhatsApp, a chat app, before Google removed the fake app from the Google Play Store. “Even if they’re not using credit card information, [imitating a popular app] makes the app a suitable publisher for viewing different kinds of display adds or banner ads,” explains Anindya Ghose, the Heinz Riehl chair professor of business at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business. Apple and Google try to screen out the scammers on their app stores, but sometimes bad apps slip through the cracks.
“In the Android ecosystem, it is unfortunately a lot easier for an attacker to inject malicious code,” says Dave Lewis, global security advocate for cloud security company Akamai Technologies. “Apple has a far more stringent gated community. It’s not 100 percent bulletproof, but the risk is far lower as a result of their gated community approach.”
[See: 9 Ways to Save When Holiday Shopping With Credit Cards.]
While WhatsApp is a popular app, Ghose says “the fake app issue is generally an issue for brands that are lesser known.” Major retailers like Target or Walmart would be harder to spoof and the real apps would show up higher in app store search results. Still, some scammers can create apps that look virtually identical to the real one, so it can be hard to tell the difference.
Here are some strategies to minimize the risk.
Shop on a mobile-optimized site. Consumers with limited smartphone storage might prefer to shop via the mobile web rather than downloading a shopping app anyway. “The best way to avoid being swindled is to shop on a retailer’s mobile-optimized site on your phone rather than an unverified app,” says Bridget Fahrland, senior vice president of strategy for Fluid, an e-commerce consulting company. “Many retailers have moved away from apps that are just about shopping, as it is easier to develop and maintain a responsive site optimized for mobile,” she explains.
Click from the retailer’s site. Instead of searching the app store, click from the retailer’s own website. “If you want to download a shopping app, it’s best to follow the link from a retailer’s verified site,” Fahrland says. She adds that it’s a good idea to “look at who created the app, when it was put on the app store, and make sure there are ample reviews.” Fake apps tend to be recent, have no reviews and may use a variation on the retailer’s actual name, according to Fahrland.
Be wary of offers that seem too good to be true. “As we’re coming into Black Friday, don’t get swept up in the hype,” Lewis says. “If you get an offer over email that says ‘download our app and get a free $200 gift card from Amazon,’ don’t do it. The attackers are going to do whatever they can. They want to steal your information or steal your money. There’s no free lunch.”
[See: 10 Tips for a Budget-Friendly Cyber Monday.]
Contact your credit card issuer. If you think you’ve entered your credit card information into a fake app, delete the app from your phone and notify your credit card issuer as soon as possible. “Call the credit card company and tell them you may have been hacked or you might have been vulnerable to some sort of phishing attack,” Ghose says. Keep an eye on your credit card statements, so you can promptly report any fraudulent transactions.
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How to Avoid Fake Shopping Apps This Holiday Season originally appeared on usnews.com
