Beware: There’s a fake Amazon Alexa ‘Setup’ app climbing App Store charts [U: Removed]

9to5 Staff | Dec 27 2018 - 6:17 am PT

There’s an app currently circulating around Apple’s App Store pretending to be the official set-up companion for Amazon’s Alexa, and it’s fooled its way to the top of the download charts. At the time of this writing, the fake app sits at #60 overall in the general “Top Free” apps section, while in an even more concerning top 10 place under the Utilities sections at #6.

While a handful of Reddit users have reported the app, no action has been taken from either Apple or Amazon so far.

Though the app doesn’t hit you with an instant advertisement upon launch or prompt you to sign-in to Amazon, it does ask you to supply your IP address alongside the device serial number and a ‘name’.

Generally, it’s rather surprising to see a scam app make it past the iOS App Store review process, let alone rise so high up the charts. More than likely, the app saw success after an influx of post-Christmas Alexa owners searched the store with a query along the lines of “setup Amazon Alexa”, ultimately leading it atop the charts.

The app comes way of “One World Software”, who have two other questionable apps on the store as well — “Marketplace – Buy/Sell”, with nearly identical colors to Facebook, and “Any Font for Instagram” for $0.99.