A fake application that pretends to be the official Alexa of Amazon, managed to climb the download charts in the App Store.
Looks like it's not the only one Google Play Store vulnerable to fake apps, designed to take advantage of people's trust in a platform. Apple's App Store is just as vulnerable, as the recent app titled “Setup for Amazon Alexa” is stark proof of that.
This particular fake app has not only managed to stay in the App Store, which is strictly controlled by Apple but has also been downloaded. Although not so easy to achieve, the application reached No6 in Utilities and No75 in Top Free. Most regular and legitimate apps in the App Store have not even managed to get so high in their dream.
How is that possible?
It's not so much a mystery that he managed to get so high up in the App Store. It can easily be explained because of Christmas. Obviously, many users have received or bought a package from Amazon Alexa and started looking for a tool in the App Store. The wave of searches and users pushed it to the top.
Unlike the Google Play Store, the App Store is much more scrutinized and each app is evaluated before being accepted. Many large applications, even from large companies, have been rejected, but somehow this fake application managed to pass the procedure approval.
Shortly after users started realizing it was fake, “Setup for Amazon Alexa” was removed and is no longer available. Although the news does not concern users in Greece, it gives them an idea of what is happening today in platforms finding apps for mobile phones and recounts that they should always be careful when downloading something on their mobile.
