Fake Google Apps Leaked in Windows Phone Store

Some of the most popular Google mobile apps including Hangouts, Google Maps, Google+, Google Search and Google Voice have been seen recently in the Windows Phone Store retailing at the not-so-bargain price of $1.99, as announced by Windows on winbeta.org.

The site says the applications are fake. In the Android and iOS mobile markets, these services are free of charge. Moreover, the developer’s name is misspelled: the valid applications are signed Google Inc, while the new versions are published by Google, Inc.

Designed to empty users’ wallets, fake applications can pose serious security and privacy risks by secretly tracking the user’s location, leaking email addresses or phone logs to third-parties. What’s more, developers can manipulate an Android app’s SDK to implement rogue features to intercept text messages or execute man-in-the-middle attacks.

The apps have been taken down from the Windows Phone Store.

“We removed a series of apps for violating our policies concerning the use of misleading information,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. “The apps attempted to misrepresent the identity of the publisher.”