Sophos discovers 167 fake Android and iOS trading and cryptocurrency apps

Cybersecurity firm Sophos on Monday said it had discovered a stash of as many as 167 counterfeit apps that were being used by cybercriminals to steal money from users who believed they had installed legit financial trading, banking or cryptocurrency application.

According to the cybersecurity firm, cybercriminals used familiar social engineering techniques, counterfeit websites, and a fake iOS App Store download page. They also used an iOS app-testing website to get users to download the fake applications.

Researchers discovered most of these fake applications were identical to each other. Some apps came with a customer support chat option. When contacted, they used near-identical languages as well.