Just as the cyber-election manipulators are finishing their work, the "for-profit" population of on-line fraudsters are coming online -- launching their efforts to bilk the public between now and November 25, Black Friday, the peak of heaviest online shopping day of the year.
Mobile app fraud is dominating the first wave of this year's Black Friday cyber attacks. First reported in the New York Post, and further reported in the New York Times, a slew of imitation and copycat mobile apps have appeared online in the last few weeks - parodying trusted brands such as Dollar Tree and Foot Locker, iconic stores like Dillard’s and Nordstrom, online retailers like Zappos.com and Polyvore, and luxury-goods purveyors Jimmy Choo, Christian Dior and Salvatore Ferragamo.
What makes this wave of fraudulent applications different is the targeted platform: Apple's iOS.
Historically, the bulk of fraudulent mobile apps detected and analyzed by BrandProtect and other vendors have appeared on various android platforms and have been distributed via third party and offshore app stores. Not so with these rogue apps -- these have been discovered on the official Apple App Store.
