Google Play Store is a vast platform hosting a wide variety of applications. Therefore, it’s not just developers with good intentions who publish their apps there, but also malicious developers. In recent days, Google has identified two more of these developers, and fortunately, the issue was prevented from escalating. However, if you have previously installed these applications, you should uninstall them immediately.
Google has blacklisted two applications
Google has removed two fake messaging applications, Signal Plus Messenger and FlyGram, from the Google Play Store. These apps were designed to resemble Telegram and Signal but were allegedly malicious applications that could steal user data. The first one, Signal Plus Messenger, was active on the Play Store for over nine months and was downloaded approximately 100,000 times before Google removed it. It’s crucial for users to exercise caution when downloading apps and to stick to trusted sources to ensure their digital security.
FlyGram was also created by the same group of developers. Even though this app has been removed from the store, both of these apps may still be accessible through third-party websites and the Samsung App Store.
If you have installed any of these fake messaging apps, it is advisable to uninstall them and ensure that you have severed any connections between your account and these apps before doing so. Signal Plus, for example, has the potential to access both sent and received messages and even the contact list of the users of the app. It’s crucial to take such actions to protect your privacy and data.
Exactly, it’s crucial to trust only official applications for such purposes. Additionally, to ensure that unknown devices don’t have access to your accounts, you should periodically review your list of Connected Devices every few months. Both Telegram and Signal are known for their privacy-focused messaging applications, so compromising that privacy in any way could be concerning.
If you’ve installed any fake messaging applications on your devices, you should at least remove them from your current device and ensure that any unknown or old devices are removed from your Signal and Telegram accounts. Despite being removed from the Google Play Store, both apps managed to fly under the radar of a broad audience.
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