Researchers spotted a modified version of FaceApp called “FaceApp Pro” that lure users to install it and try to make money by fool victims and pretending to offer some advanced features.
Recent days a lot more allegation around the FaceApp about the privacy issues, and its features created an over hype and popularity which attracted millions of users around the globe.
FaceApp is a face-modifying tool available for both iOS and Android developed by Russian company Wireless Lab which uses neural network technology to automatically generate highly realistic transformations of faces.
Due to the App popularity, it attracted scammers who have created a modified version of Fake FaceApp and try to make money from the non-existent “Pro” version.
Scammers using an online platform such as fake websites, Youtube to distribute the fake version of FaceApp and compromise them to install it.
Researchers from ESET discovered a fake website that developed by attackers that claim to offer the “premium” version of FaceApp for free.
In reality, the scammers trick their victims into clicking through countless offers for installing other paid apps and subscriptions, ads, surveys, and so on.
Victims also receive requests from various websites to allow displaying notifications. When enabled, these notifications lead to further fraudulent offers.
Figure 2. Notifications from the browser lead to further scams
Researchers learn with the malicious links that redirect users to download the fake version of “FaceApp Pro” from a popular file-sharing service (mediafire.com) where attack host malware to infect the victim’s device.
FaceApp pro Scam Through YouTube Video
Another similar scam researchers learned from Youtube Video that promotes the download links for a free “Pro” version of FaceApp.
Scammers created a shorten download links that pointed to the other apps and force victims to install various additional apps from Google Play.
Researchers discovered a Video in Youtube That promotes the Fake FaceApp pro version with shortened links that could lead to users installing malware.
The mentioned link was clicked over 96,000 times, which, however, doesn’t tell us much about the number of actual installations. (But still, serious businesses don’t even dream of such a high click rate.)
Figure 5. Statistics for the link leading to the fake “FaceApp Pro” installation package referenced in the YouTube video above
