A handful scammy iOS apps have been taking benefit of Apple’s Touch ID feature by attempting to trick consumers into making transactions with false commitments of employing the fingerprint scans for fitness info, as per media reports.
The two applications—dubbed as “Calories Tracker” and “Fitness Balance”— were spotted by different Reddit consumers over the past week, and both use similar methods. As fraction of their supposed “fitness tracking,” the applications ask consumers to put their finger on the scanner for a few seconds, to “generate personalized diet.” While a consumer’s finger is placed on the scanner, the app shows an in-app purchase transaction request for sums $99.99. Since the consumer’s finger is already on the scanner, the request can be accepted almost instantly.
This hack operates since Touch ID is a seamless procedure. By attempting to be as unobtrusive and fast as possible, the handset begins scanning the fingerprint that is already on the scanner as soon as the transaction request is displayed. The speed at which Touch ID operates indicates that by the time a consumer has processed what is going on, the transaction has already been accepted.
On a similar note, Google earlier launched out a new function via which applications shared on peer-to-peer file sharing apps such as Shareit will be checked by Google Play. As consumers tend to share applications (particularly games) over Shareit and other apps to get away from mobile Internet speeds, the odds of installing false applications are high. Hence, there is no method to check the genuineness of the installed application.
Google’s new function will check the genuineness of the shared apps and allow consumers know if the application has been originated from the authorized Google Play store or not. Fascinatingly, Google has also expanded this function to offline installation too.
