Beware of fake apps that claim to help you invest in JioCoin

After news of Reliance Jio to launch its own cryptocurrency Jio emerged, a bunch of scammers seemed to have sprung into action.

The Google Play Store was recently flooded with fake apps claiming to help users invest in JioCoin. And not long after this, Reliance issued an official statement rubbishing these apps saying, “Any such apps using the JioCoin name are fake and people are advised to refrain from dealing with any of them. Reliance Jio takes a serious note of such fraudulent attempts by unscrupulous persons to misguide the public in the name of Jio and reserves the right to take appropriate legal recourse.“^[1]

^[1] (Source: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/company/corporate-trends/reliance-jio-warns-public-against-fake-jiocoin-apps/articleshow/62729300.cms)

                                                                                Fig 1. Fake apps

Quick Heal Security Labs’ analysis of these apps

• During our analysis, we found that these apps ask for personal information such as username, mobile number and email address, and show a message that the user is in a queue for JioCoin. But, nothing actually happens.

                                                              Fig 2. The app asks for personal information

• One of these fake apps (that goes by the name Jio Coin) has been downloaded between 10,000 and 50,000 times. The app’s icon looks similar to the official Jio icon and the developer goes by the name ‘Rellance Digital’ (not Reliance Digital) as shown in figure 3. As you may have noted, the same developer has another app called Gio TV.

                                                                                       Fig 3.

Quick Heal Security Labs reported all these fake apps to Google and currently they are not available on the Play Store.

Details of the reported apps

                       MD5                                             Package Name

f89a94b5b7a01644a7e73728bb8a3d59      jio.coin

d4aaca239e5620f6d4e829edd6f6a8c0       com.jio_coin.registration

951df008a21aa62068d2e2843c182b9c      com.wFreeJioCoin_6351524

7b53f382342cbfba5934aff50705ab82        com.wJioCoinIndianDigitalCurrency_6351459

acdb03b659a7d4c850bcdb8f14286f7a       giotv.guide

How to stay away from fake apps

• Check an app’s description before you download it.
• Check the app developer’s name and their website. If the name sounds strange or odd, you have reasons to suspect it.
• Go through the reviews and ratings of the app. But, note that, these can be fake too.
• Avoid downloading apps from third-party app stores.
• Use a reliable mobile antivirus that can prevent fake and malicious apps from getting installed on your phone.

Anand Singh