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Just fake play store entries. One example of many: http://bgr.com/2017/11/05/whatsapp-android-google-play-store-fake-app/ http://bgr.com/2017/11/05/whatsapp-and

• gtirloni 9y ago
  Additionally, at least on the Play Store, you can have ads showing before search results. Right now, if I search for Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram or Wire, the first result is the official app. If I search for Messenger, an ad for Facebook comes at first and the second entry is something called "The Messenger" from a company I never heard of. There's where user confusion starts enabling these attacks. I remember this being worse in the recent past though.
• ggm 9y ago
  Thanks. I'm more scared than I was. I think I was naieve enough to believe the automated store checks picked this stuff up. I suspect the T&C were written by competent lawyers but this feels like a situation where if the barriers to entry in the store aren't high enough, then google as the storekeeper has the liability, if they determine trustedness as the 'editor' of what is or is not allowed into the store. When it comes to content, the government seems to take this view: if you publish the kind of material the government forbids in law, you either have a common carrier defence that you publish EVERYTHING or, you have the role of selecting what is published and acquire liability because of that moment of choice. Automatic choice doesn't absolve you of the onus of checking.