BBB Tip: Be careful before you download that app! How to avoid app store scams

You store important personal information – passwords to banking details – on your phone. Unfortunately, scammers are lurking in the app stores of Apple and Google. BBB recommends the following tips when downloading an app to avoid getting scammed.

How to download apps safely

• Only download apps from official app stores. Trusted app stores don’t eliminate the threat of app scams, but they offer a basic protection level. You are much more likely to download an app that will send spam messages or expose your phone number if you download it from an unofficial or little-known app store.
  
  
• Don’t rely solely on a high star rating when downloading. Keep in mind that shady app developers can generate or purchase fake reviews. One tell-tale sign of a scam is when an app has thousands of five-star reviews with no written comments and hundreds of one-star reviews with negative comments. App developers may have purchased good reviews to cover up the bad reviews that expose the app as a fraud. Even written reviews can be purchased, which leads us to the next tip.
  
  
• Read good and bad reviews. Scammers can artificially push good reviews to the top by getting fake users to mark them as “helpful.” They can also pay people to create written reviews, claiming the app is great. Take a closer look at the positive reviewers’ accounts, and ask yourself if they look like they are coming from a real person who actually used the app. And don’t stop after reading a few good reviews. Take the time to check out poor reviews to find out what people didn’t like about the app. All apps will generate a few bad reviews, but if you notice an app has several reviews where users mention they were “scammed” or the app didn’t deliver what it promised to, steer clear.
  
  
• Read the app’s privacy policy before you download. Take a few minutes to read the app’s terms of service and privacy policy and note what personal information the app will access and how it will use. It could be a red flag if the permissions don’t make sense (for example, if a weather radar app says it needs access to your contacts to work). In addition, any app that doesn’t have a privacy policy is probably not safe to use.
  
  
• Make sure you download the real version of any app you look for specifically. One popular tactic scammers use is to create copycat apps to trick people into downloading. If you are looking for a popular app, remember it may not be the first to appear on the list after you search for it. Look out for similar but not-quite-right logos and app developer names that don’t look legitimate. Read the app’s description text carefully, too. Impostor apps often contain descriptions that don’t make sense or spelling and grammatical errors.
  
  
• Keep an eye on free trials. Many app store scams start by offering you a free trial. Scammers hope you’ll sign up for a free trial and forget to cancel. Many scam apps charge for weekly instead of monthly subscriptions, which can add up quickly, even if you are only charged a few dollars at a time. Whenever you sign up for a free trial, test it immediately and unsubscribe before you get charged if you don’t plan on using the service. Both Google and Apple allow you to access all of your subscriptions in a single place, so you don’t have to do any digging to find an “unsubscribe” button that an app developer may have hidden.
  
  
• Do regular app housekeeping. Out-of-date apps are particularly vulnerable to hackers. This is because they may have security issues not addressed through updates. If you haven’t used an app in a few months or notice it hasn’t been updated by the developer recently, it’s probably best to delete it.
  
  
• Watch out for shady app behavior after you download. If you download an app after reading reviews and the privacy policy, you’ll still want to keep a critical eye on how it works. Asking for unnecessary permissions, disappearing from your home screen, draining your battery or data even when not in use, and not doing what it promised to do are all signs of a scam.   
  
  
• Report fraudulent apps. If you spot an app scam, report it. You can flag an app as inappropriate in the Google Play store and then explain why. In an Apple iOS update, you can now “report a problem” on any app’s description page and then select “report a scam or fraud.” You can also report app scams to BBB.org/ScamTracker.

For more information

Read up on cyber safety risks to avoid falling victim to scammers after personal information is stored on your mobile device or computer.

If you’ve been the victim of an app store scam, reporting it at BBB.org/ScamTracker can help raise awareness and alert other consumers to the risk.