Telegram also faces cybersecurity threats such as malware and phishing attacks. Recently, two malicious clones of Telegram and Signal have been found to exist,
Your mobile may be in danger if you have joined Telegram in the last few days. A serious problem that affects users who use Telegram as a messaging application has just come to light. Of course, this also affects all users who use Signal in their day-to-day life in the same way. The only application that has been spared is WhatsApp, at least for now.
FlyGram and Signal Plus Messenger, two dangerous applications in the Play Store. These two apps pose as official Telegram and Signal clients respectively, confusing users into installing them instead of the real apps. The reason for doing this is that they can then steal information from the mobile devices on which they have been installed.
Remove these apps that pretend to be Telegram and Signal from your Android. If you have them installed, what you should do is remove them as soon as possible. The damage may already have been done, but it’s best to prevent them from further harming or compromising the information on your Android mobile device because they’re not in the App Store.
Phishing on Telegram. What has been discovered could be considered a case of phishing, although it must be taken into account that the users are the ones who have installed the applications without the intervention of some type of attacker. In fact, this is exactly what makes it so dangerous.
How to protect yourself from malicious Telegram clones?
To avoid falling into the trap of malicious Telegram clones, the first thing to do is download the official app from the authorized sources. These are: the official Telegram website, the Play Store for Android, the App Store for iOS or the Microsoft Store for Windows.
Telegram can also be accessed from the web browser, using the Telegram Web service. Another way to protect yourself is to check the app name and icon before installing or opening it.. Malicious clones often have similar names, but with subtle misspellings or differences, such as Teligram or Singal.
Besides, It is recommended to pay attention to the permissions that the application requests when installing or running. Malicious clones may ask for excessive or unnecessary permissions, such as access to camera, microphone, contacts, storage, or location. These permissions can be used to spy on the user or to steal their personal data.
Therefore, you should deny any suspicious permissions or uninstall the app if you don’t trust it. Telegram is a safe and fast messaging application that offers many advantages to its users. However, you also have to be careful of malicious clones that try to imitate it to trick users and steal their data.