Some iPhone users who received a new Alexa device as gift on Christmas may have downloaded an app masquerading as the official setup companion for Amazon's Alexa.
Fake Alexa App Climbs App Store Charts
The fake Alexa setup app for iOS, which went live this week, has apparently fooled many users it managed to climb its way up to Apple's App Store charts.
Some Alexa device owners who thought the app called "Setup for Amazon Alexa" was legit even left reviews to express their frustration over the "instability" and "complicated setup" of the app.
The fake app has made its way to number 60 in the general "Top Free" apps section and number 6 in the Utilities sections of the App Store before it was taken down.
The app is from the company called One World Software, which also has two other shady apps in the App Store.
The Setup for Amazon Alexa app asked users to provider their IP address, device serial number, and a "name" during the fake setup process. Scammers may use the IP address and serial number of devices connected to the web for malicious purposes.
One World Software's privacy policy also suggests it may collect and use the personal information of those who downloaded the app. The privacy policy likewise said the company might track users' locations and movements for marketing campaigns and to monitor the effectiveness of its services.
The rise of the fake Alexa setup app coincides with the impressive sale of Alexa-enabled devices, particularly Amazon's Echo Dot speaker, this holiday season.
Amazon revealed earlier this week that shipments of Echo Dot, Alexa Voice Remote, and Echo substantially increased from this fiscal quarter last year.
The surge of users plugging in their new smart devices even led to Alexa crashing on Christmas day albeit the incident was isolated to Europe.
â 2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Surfitall on December 28th, 2018 at 15:49 UTC »
I saw it, saw the maker as OneWorld, ignored it, struggled to find the proper setup app which was not well labeled. When I searched for Alexa Setup in the Apple App Store a couple fake apps came up first, the regular Amazon app came up third or fourth, and the real setup app was hard to distinguish from the fake ones if you didn’t know to look for who made the app.
Even after all this, I accidentally clicked to download the fake one and then had to delete it. Thankfully I didn’t enter any info.
SecretJediWarrior on December 28th, 2018 at 15:42 UTC »
Can anyone help me find what to do if someone did fall for the fake app?
My mom got an Echo dot and downloaded this fake app, and she did input her IP address and serial number. What should she do now? None of these articles mention what affected users should do. She deleted the app from her phone, but I'm worried about what this scammer can do with her IP address and Echo Serial Number.
Edit: This article at least offers some advice. Just delete the fake app from your phone and they don't think there should be any other harm.
Here is the best advice I can come up with: Delete the fake app right away. Power cycle your router (edit: and modem) so that you can maybe change your Public IP. Change the Echo Dot name to something different from what you gave the fake app. There's no changing the Echo Dot Serial Number, but you can change the IP and name you gave them.
nokenito on December 28th, 2018 at 14:06 UTC »
I saw the app and thankfully didn’t install it. It seemed off from the start.