If they could, my kids would play the video game Fortnite until they dropped to the floor from sheer exhaustion. Or hunger.
However, their "mean" parents keep that from happening.
By many accounts, Fortnite is the most popular game in the world right now. About 45 million people play the game that pits you against 99 other real competitors, where only the lone survivor gets to celebrate "Victory Royale."
Now Zscaler has discovered that spyware makers are scoring their own victories by faking Fortnite in a variety of ways.
There is currently no Android version of the game, so hackers have created fake Fortnite apps like this one.
Zscaler researchers analyzed this fake Fortnite app and discovered a few key details:
- It harvests incoming and outgoing calls
- It harvests your phone contacts
- Records audio
- Sends and harvest SMS
- Reads keystrokes
Those are just some of the features. Zscaler researchers also found a fake Fortnite app that is mining cryptocurrency.
"... the code is triggering the HTML file containing the CoinHive framework for initiating mining. We monitored the app on a device and found that this coin mining app significantly raises CPU usage once installed."
And there is more. Researchers documented fake websites claiming to have the beta version of Android Fortnite for download.
But instead of Fortnite fans getting to play, they are being played by someone else.
Epic games, which created Fortnite, has not announced when Fortnite for Android will be released. So as of May 22, 2018, everything that claims to be the Android Fortnite app is a fake.
