Downloading WhatsApp? Beware! A fake malicious version of WhatsApp was found on Google Play Store as “Update WhatsApp Messenger” which has been developed by a fake company ‘WhatsApp Inc*’.
When IANS investigated about it on the Google Play Store, they found out that the software has been downloaded up to 5,000 times. While the original WhatsApp has more than 1 billion downloads.
The International Bussiness Times reported that the existence of this shady software was first highlighted by the popular WhatsApp change tracking website WABetaInfo, via Twitter user @MujtabaMHaq.
WhatsApp is not the only App which had been a victim of cloning, a version of popular mobile game Temple Run 2 can also be found which was uploaded in October.
“DON’T DOWNLOAD THIS APP! IT’S FAKE! WhatsApp Business is not officially available yet for all,” the WABetaInfo social media account tweeted to its 30,000 followers. It added: “Check only official channels to download WhatsApp Business in future.”
However, WhatsApp has suffered a server break down for users around the world for about an hour on Friday. The users complained about the issue on Twitter as well as on their Facebook accounts.
The company later released a statement saying the issue has been fixed and apologized for any inconvenience.
Downdetecor.com has reported that more than 46 percent users complained of problems with the connection, while 41 percent reported issues with sending or receiving messages, and about 12 percent WhatsApp had problems with ‘Last seen’ feature of the service.