How to spot fake iOS and Android Apps

The New York Times and New York Post discovered hundreds of counterfeit shopping apps in Apple's App Store. This is also a problem we have seen in Google's Play store. While some of these apps will display annoying banner ads, others could have more serious consequences.

Some apps may contain malware that could steal personal information. Scammers could also benefit from unsuspecting customers entering credit card information in these bogus apps.

Here are a few tips to help you identify the real apps from the fake ones:

Check to see who published the app. Be careful, though, scammers will use similar names; such was the case for Overstock.com (real) and Overstock Inc (fake).
Check the reviews in Apple's App Store and Google's Play store. A real app will likely have thousands of (hopefully positive) reviews, while a fake one will likely have zero.
Look at the publish date. A fake app will have a recent publish date, while the a real one will have an "updated on" date. For example, that fake Overstock app was only published on October 26 of this year.

Check for spelling mistakes in the title or description. Many of these apps come out of China. Take extra caution if it looks like English isn't the developers' first language.
Beware of apps that promise shopping discounts. Sound too good to be true? It probably is.
When in doubt, visit a store's website in your browser and look for an icon or button that reads "Get our app." This will take you to the App Store or Google Play store where you can download the correct app.

Facebook Chat 'Rooms' Return in Messenger

Facebook Rooms, the social network's semi-anonymous messaging service, is back—sort of.

Going forward though, those in Australia and Canada will have access to Rooms inside Facebook Messenger.

Rooms is designed as an outlet for people to talk about interests their friends may not share with other like-minded individuals, Facebook Messenger Product Manager, Drew Moxon, told Australia's Courier-Mail.

"Group chats today are focused on people you know—friends and family—and what we've found by talking to users is there's a lot of need for conversations about specific topics," Moxon said. "This will be for topic-based conversations and so people can talk with others they may not know."

If this sounds familiar, Facebook initially released a standalone Rooms app for Apple iOS in the US in October 2014, allowing users to chat anonymously about various topics. However, social-networking app Room, which claimed to be the "first mobile application that enables you to create and join mini private" chat rooms, accused Facebook of stealing its idea.

Ultimately, Facebook pulled the plug on its Creative Labs department, known for producing products like Rooms, Riff, and Slingshot, in December 2015 and, subsequently, ended that experiment.

That all changes now as Rooms is back in the fold, albeit inside Facebook's popular Messenger service. Users will be able to create public rooms to chat about the economy, Toronto Maple Leaves, or an election, for example. They could even create private rooms to talk about films, the environment, or typography, the Courier-Mail reported.

It could also come in handy when organizing large events like protests and rallies or sending out alerts, TechCrunch pointed out.

Facebook did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment.