A fake WhatsApp clone is showing up before the real version on the Play Store
Half a million downloads before Google seems to have caught on. That's the number that matters here. The fake WhatsApp sat in a sponsored slot, which is exactly where a casual user is least likely to double-check the developer name. This is the second spoof in a week, after the Chrome clone, so either the review pipeline is leaking or someone has found a reliable way to dress up malicious apps as ads.
The sponsored placement is the aggravating factor. Users have been trained to see ads as "official" adjacent content, and the Play Store's design doesn't do much to separate them visually. A clone with the right icon and name will pass most people's sniff test, especially on mobile where you're scanning quickly. I'd want to know what the app actually does once installed, whether it scrapes contacts or pushes phishing pages, because that determines how bad the 500k exposure is.
I'm not ready to call Play Store moderation broken, but two near-identical incidents in seven days is a pattern that deserves attention. Google should speed up takedowns, and it also needs to make sponsored slots clearly say they are paid advertisements.