If you know anything about current video game trends, you would most likely mention something about Epic Games’ Fortnite. I have a previous article explaining why Fortnite has so much hype surrounding it. And it seems like scammers are finally taking advantage of the fun this game generators and using it for their own malicious purposes.
This past week, dozens of fake Fortnite apps have appeared in links on YouTube videos for thousands of eager fans to click on. Fortnite is scheduled to release this summer on the Google Play Store for Android users. But many are falling for these “fake Fortnite” apps.
Clicking on one of these links will take you to an app. Clicking this app (which has the same picture of the Fortnite game for the iPhone) will redirect you to a new page with a few other apps. You are told that in order for Fortnite to work, you must first download these subsequent apps. Now the scammers are paid each time one of these subsequent apps are downloaded. And you know what the worst part is? The game will never actually load because the game isn’t programmed into the original app.
Nathan Collier is an analyst from Malwarebytes, a security company that deals with cyber scammers like those who develop these fake apps. He had this to say about the realistic look of the app:
“It’s so realistic that some may recognize it from the Apple iOS version. By stealing the icon directly from Apple, how could it not look real?”
So my next question was what is YouTube doing about these videos with the treacherous links to the fake app. Well, apparently a YouTube spokesperson said that YouTube has a programmed system that detects and removes millions of spam videos with links like these. I guess some of these videos managed to slip past this algorithm that is designed to catch them before they manage to go viral and that is why so many people have downloaded this fake app.
Mr. Collier did offer his advice to those who are so eager to play Fortnite on their Android device that they would try and download it from scam websites. He said “be patient. If you wait for the official release by Epic Games in the Google Play Store this summer, you won’t have to spend the ensuing months cleaning malware off your Android.”
And Mr. Collier does have a great point. The fake apps you download don’t do anything but take up space on your device while you benefit the scammers. So just take his advice and be patient because Epic Games is going to release the official Fortnite app for Google Play Store in no time.
Feature Image via Shutterstock/Michael Moloney
