Just recently, Google’s popular Play Store has taken off a crypto app dubbed MetaMask. The piece of software proved to copy addresses from phone owners’ crypto wallets, where they just copy and paste addresses and steal their virtual riches.
Play Store seems to put apps up for sale without checking them first
The case with MetaMask turned to be an astonishing experience for the whole crypto community and yet another shot against Google’s Play Store, which has previously already been under criticism for selling apps without giving them a proper check first.
Google Play is not the only store where users buying apps can get a crypto ‘Trojan horse’ – apps that steal people’s crypto were also sold on other websites such as download.cnet.com, and in unofficial Android stores.
UPD Apr. 22, 2019
In February 2019, U.Today reported that the Google Play store had removed the ConsenSys-made MetaMask app, since it was stealing customers’ crypto assets by copying addresses from the phones that contained crypto wallets. The sources that U.Today used back then proved to be misleading, and a ConsenSys rep has recently contacted us to update on the situation.
The official statement from the Ethereum software studio says that the app in question was a third-party clipper malware that presented a copy of the MetaMask app. MetaMask and ConsenSys remain well-reputed brands that have not stained themselves with hacking or any other illegal activities and continue to be in the chain of leaders in blockchain software development.
