Fake 'Travel Frog' games appear in Apple store

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A Japanese mobile phone game “Travel Frog” has recently become a hit in China, ranking No.1 free downloaded app in Apple store. The game is mainly about a frog who loves to travel and send back postcards or local specialties.

Some fake frog games, however, have appeared in App store.

The fake "Travel Frog" that cost 30 yuan appeared in Apple store. /Photo via Weibo

Many discovered that a fake “Travel Frog” app that cost 30 yuan was appearing at the top of the search in Apple store.

The game looked like the original “Travel Frog”. Apple store had already removed the fake game after thousands of people fell into the trap.

Some other fake “Travel Frog” games that are likely to confuse users still exist in Apple store.

Also, some illegal assistant software related to the game started to appear on Chinese online shopping website Taobao. As the only in-game currency, users can use clovers to buy some food and travel equipment for the frog, helping it to travel to more places.

However, the clover takes a long time to grow and users need to spend much time to collect the clover. Thus, some online sellers started to sell the illegal assistant software that could offer 2.1 billion clovers for one time, which cost up to 50 yuan.

Online sellers began to sell the illegal assistant software that could provide users with a huge amount of in-game currency. /Beijing Youth Daily Photo

Although users can buy clovers in the official game, it cost much higher than purchasing the illegal assistant software online.

According to Beijing Youth Daily, many users discovered that their mobile phones couldn’t send or receive text messages and some even experienced data loss after installing the software.

The online seller told Beijing Youth Daily that mobile phones using the software risked losing data, but it may affect different phone systems in different ways. “Take iPhone as an example, the system under iOS 9 has no risk of losing data; iOS 10 has the risk of losing data; iOS 11 risks losing data and reloading all the apps in the mobile phone,” said the online seller.

The online seller also said that they would suggest customers let them operate the devices remotely, in order to prevent improper operation. And they promised that they won’t look at customers’ personal information.

A seller promised he or she would not to look at the user's information on the mobile phone when operating the software remotely. /Beijing Youth Daily Photo

However, a customer service staff in Apple store told Beijing Youth Daily that if users allowed others to operate their phones remotely, their phones would risk leaking personal Apple ID, or even being locked by operators, who may ask for money to unlock. Therefore, Apple staff strongly suggested users not to allow strangers to operate their mobile phones remotely.