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Signal and Telegram are some of the secure messaging apps in the market that millions trust to communicate without facing the threat of being tracked. But people will probably find it concerning that these two apps have their fake versions out there in the public. Reports say that apps called Signal Plus Messenger and FlyGram have nothing to do with their namesakes and are in fact acting as spyware, capable of stealing your bank details which can help bad actors steal money from your account.

The app has been spotted in the Play Store, even Samsung’s Galaxy Store and other third-party app stores from where you can sideload the apps on an Android phone. Both the companies claim the apps have now been removed from their respective App Stores but not before the apps were downloaded by 100s of users over the past nine months, when it was first listed.

The companies were alerted about these fake apps by ESET, which is a cybersecurity firm. They claim that anybody who has downloaded these apps will have been infected by malware on their phones.

In addition to this, the apps can also gain access to important details like phone contacts, the Google account of the device owner, and the ability to read their call logs. And if that wasn’t scary enough, the researchers say the attackers can easily back up all this data to a server that is under their control and the victim is helpless to stop them from doing so.

The security firm asks people using these apps to delete them right away. Even though Google has taken down these apps, people having these apps could also be affected by the malware, so it is vital that they remove the app and definitely factory reset their phone to ensure that imprints of the malware are completely removed from the device.

Fake apps are prevalent on Android, and the only way to avoid falling for these malicious apps is to install apps that look genuine, here are the basic ways to know that:

– Install from the official app store or Play Store

– Double-check before installing an APK file on your Android phone

– Check for the developer of the app and see their official website for the details

– Also, keep an eye out for the data and permissions that an app takes for your device