The growing prices and popularity of cryptocurrencies don’t just attract masses of potential users, but also inspire cyber-crooks to find new and creative ways to get their sticky fingers on all those virtual coins. Of course, cryptocurrency scams are not exclusive to PCs and have already emerged on the Android platform, using a wide array of disguises.
Fake cryptocurrency exchange apps
Cryptocurrency exchanges are an attractive target for crooks not only due to their popularity with cryptocurrency enthusiasts, but also because many don’t offer a mobile app. Such “unclaimed territory” acts like a magnet for scammers who waste no time coming up with malicious fakes.
Typically, the purpose of such fake apps is to phish for login credentials to the impersonated official exchange. Attackers then use the stolen credentials to take over the compromised accounts. To lure users into giving away their passwords, crooks try to raise as little suspicion as possible – the developer name, app icon and user interface usually mimic those of the legitimate service, and the app may even appear to have a good overall rating thanks to fake reviews.
A recent case of this type of scam are phishing apps impersonating the cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex, discovered on Google Play
last year and frequently resurfacing ever since.
