Think about it. How many shopping apps have you downloaded onto your phone? A growing collection of fake apps are popping up in popular app stores, and those apps could be a pathway to trouble.
There are about two million apps in the Apple App Store alone, and security experts say scam artists are trying to include fake apps into the mix.
Our phone is never far away, and at the swipe of a finger we have a collection of apps that help us tell the weather, link us to social media sites and help us shop.
But according to Stephen Cobb with ESET, an internet security software company, some of these apps may be fakes.
"It is increasingly difficult for us as consumers to tell the legitimate from the fake," said Cobb, ESET's senior security researcher.
Privacy experts say that more fake apps are being released to the market than ever before. The volume of new apps is enormous and that's part of the problem.
Both Google and Apple say they are constantly flagging and removing suspicious apps, but with hundreds of fake apps appearing every week, it's a constant battle.
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Cobb says some fraudulent apps try to sell you counterfeit items, and others are trying to do much worse.
"It could be something that is trying to infect your phone with a virus or malicious code, or it could be something that's trying to steal information from your device."
Some of the fake apps, most of which come from China, masquerade as popular shopping sites using design elements, like navigation and color scheme, to match department store or grocery store apps.
Cobb suggests that consumers go the website of the company and double check what their app is supposed to look like. If available, he recommends that they download the app through a legitimate company site rather than through an app store to avoid choosing an imposter.
Cobb also says people should look for multiple downloads and reviews. If the app has had thousands of downloads then it’s more likely that it’s not a fake. If the site has no reviews, or very few, was recently posted to the market or is using bad English grammar, you may want to stay clear.
