Highlights:
- According to Meta, the applications enticed individuals to download them by fabricating reviews and making false claims about the functionality they would provide.
- The Android applications covered a broad variety of categories, including games, virtual private networks (VPNs), picture editors, and horoscopes.
- Every single one of them for the iOS platform pertained to the administration of company sites or advertisements.
According to the parent business Meta, about one million Facebook users might have had their Facebook information stolen by well over 400 fraudulent Android and iOS mobile applications that they downloaded this year.
Facebook is sending out notifications to users who may have inadvertently compromised their credentials by installing and using third-party applications and then disclosing their login information.
According to Bloomberg, one million customers might have been adversely impacted. Meta said in its article that the applications misled users into installing them by providing fraudulent reviews and making false claims about the capabilities they would provide.
Both of these methods are often used by other scam applications in an attempt to steal your money instead of your login information. Users of some of the applications, therefore, were requested to log in with Facebook before they were allowed to do anything, and if they did this, the creators were able to obtain their credentials when they opened the programs. This happened when they opened some of the apps.
Even though Meta claims to have reported the applications to Google and Apple and succeeded in having them removed from the stores, the fact that they were there in the first place is not a good picture for the company.
According to the findings of Facebook’s analysis, the problem is much more widespread on the Play Store. Of the 402 dangerous applications on Facebook’s list, 355 were designed specifically for Android, while just 47 were designed specifically for iOS.
Also Read: Google Pixel 7, Pixel Watch, Pixel Tablet: Everything Google Announced At October Event 2022
The applications were distributed via the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store in a variety of guises, including that picture editors, games, virtual private network (VPN) services, business services, and other utility programs
It is an ongoing battle to prevent rogue applications from installing on your phone. Even though Apple and Google are attempting to prevent these applications from their mobile app stores, crooks who want to steal your confidential information still manage to evade detection.
Officials from Meta have advised users to exercise caution when installing new applications that need login credentials for several social networking platforms. The applications often create phony reviews in an effort to mask or hide any negative feedback and fool users into installing them.
Meta advises anybody who has been compromised to remove the software from all vulnerable devices immediately. After that, you should change your password, activate two-factor authentication, and activate log-in warnings so that you are notified whenever someone attempts to enter your Facebook account.
You may also want to go back and look at your previous sessions to confirm that you are aware of all of the devices that are logged into your account.
