WhatsApp AppStore Top Apps Are Frauds

7 points by RileyJames 5y ago ↗ HN

I read the story about a keyboard app that was was severely hampered by fraud / fake / copy cat apps: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25986515

I chalked it up to Apple being anti-competitive, letting a small guy suffer, a tale of David vs Goliath. Their app store can't be completely full of such apps.

But tonight I just watched my partner attempt to download WhatsApp on the iPad, and this is what it looks like:

https://gist.githubusercontent.com/rjaus/d35358f4286b12a47e3130365d5743aa/raw/a414b08f15f8b3335688e07cb71748a7891903f6/watsapp-appstore.PNG

1st: Ad for TikTok 2nd: Fake App (free) 3rd: Fake App (paid) 4th: Fake App 5th: Fake App 6th: Fake App

Hint. There IS NO WhatsApp for ipad, it's iphone only. This is WhatsApp, owned by Facebook. One of the biggest apps in the world, owned by the largest social media company in the world. And the AppStore is plagued with fake versions of their app.

It's bad for users, it's bad for apple's reputation, it's bad for WhatsApp, it's bad for Facebook. The only winners are these fraud / fake apps (and I guess Apple gets their cut, but surely that's not enough to sanction fraud against their own customers). What is going on?!? How has Apple let this get so bad?

2 comments

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samlevy 5y ago ↗

I discovered this recently when my housemate complained the WhatsApp iPad app was useless for some basic features that worked on their iPhone.

Then we discovered it was not an official app. I’ve been resetting all passwords shared with my housemate and am rethinking how I share sensitive information.

The kicker is anyone on the other end of a message to or from an unofficial app doesn’t know their messages may have be compromised. I thought I was safe(ish), assuming only official clients were available in app stores.

[deleted] 5y ago ↗

(comment deleted)