Fake Retail Apps Surging Before Holidays

Hundreds of fake retail and product apps have appeared in Apple’s App Store in recent weeks — just in time to deceive holiday shoppers. The counterfeiters have masqueraded as retail chains like Dollar Tree and Foot Locker, big department stores like Dillard’s and Nordstrom, online product bazaars like Zappos.com and Polyvore, and luxury-goods makers like Jimmy Choo, Christian Dior and Salvatore Ferragamo. While some of the apps are relatively harmless, serving up pop-up ads, others are more dangerous, including those that contain malware that can steal personal information.

Total Retail's Take: As if retailers didn't have enough to worry about as we enter the critical holiday shopping season, now they have to concern themselves with fraudsters stealing their identities via fake apps. Nothing like your good reputation going down the drain because of a fake app. Retailers have increasingly identified fraud and data security as top priorities as more and more commerce goes digital; it seems they will have their hands full this holiday season both on their own sites, as well as their apps.