IF you’re an avid Telegram user – beware of the spyware clones.
There have been three fakes lurking on the Google Play Store waiting to be downloaded by unsuspecting Android owners.
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The apps were a trio of Telegram mods with descriptions in traditional Chinese, simplified Chinese and Uighur.
Following an investigation by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, the copycat Telegram apps have been deleted from the Google Play Store.
But although they have been axed from the store, the unlucky Android owners who were fooled into downloaded them will still be stuck with them on their phones.
On the inside, these apps look no different from the original Telegram.
“At first it gives an impression of a perfectly ordinary Telegram mod: most packages look the same as the standard ones,” experts at Kaspersky wrote in a report.
“But, on closer examination, you can see the package called com.wsys, which is not typical for Telegram.”
This “fishy” ‘com.wsys‘ package is spyware, a form of malicious code.
The dodgy coding means the apps – and the fraudsters behind them – can access users’ names, user IDs, phone numbers and their contacts.
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The spyware is so extensive that it can follow changes made to a contacts’ information.
“If the user decides to change their name of phone number, this information will end up in rogue hands as well,” Kaspersky experts added.
Most concerning of all, is that the content of every message sent inside these fake apps are sent to the cyber crooks, alongside the senders’ name and user ID.
“Attacks employing various unofficial Telegram mods are on the rise of late,” they continued.
“As you can see, being an official store item does not guarantee an app’s security, so be wary of third-party messenger mods, even those distributed by Google Play.”
Android owners have been urged to delete these Telegram fakes from their devices.
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