Meta reveals login credentials of over 1 million Facebook users stolen by malicious apps
Washington (US), October 9: Meta, Facebook's parent company, has cautioned its users about hundreds of apps available on Apple and Google's app stores that are specifically designed to steal login credentials to the social network app.
According to The Verge, the company has identified over 400 malicious apps disguised as games, photo editors, and other services. Users who "may have unknowingly self-compromised their accounts by downloading these apps and sharing their credentials" will be notified. According to Bloomberg, a million users could have been affected.
According to Meta's post, the apps lured people into downloading them with fake reviews and promises of useful functionality, both of which are popular strategies for other scam apps that want your money rather than your login details.
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However, when users opened some of the apps, they were asked to join in with Facebook before they could do anything, and if they did, the developers were able to steal their credentials, according to The Verge.
As per Meta, it reported the apps to Google and Apple and had them removed, but it's still a terrible look that they made it onto the stores in the first place.
According to Facebook's report, the problem is even worse on the Play Store, as 355 of the 402 malicious apps on its list were for Android and 47 were for iOS.
As reported by The Verge, although the Android ones included games, VPNs, photo editors, and horoscope apps, every single one for the iPhone was dedicated to managing business pages or ads.
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-PTC News
