Is TikTok Pro App Fake or Real?

As per Indian cyber experts, Chinese apps were illegally and secretly harvesting vast amounts of personally identifiable user information and sending it to China. The data gathered by these apps could be used to identify, profile and track users in India, which raises serious privacy and security concerns for 130+ crore Indian users. Consequently, government of India had evoked Section 69 of Information Technology Act, to block these apps from operating in the Indian cyber space. 

Section 69 of IT Act: 
Power to issue directions for blocking for public access of any information through any computer resource:

(1) Where the Central Government or any of its officer specially authorized by it in this behalf is satisfied that it is necessary or expedient so to do, in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defense of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above, it may subject to the provisions of sub-section (2) for reasons to be recorded in writing, by order, direct any agency of the Government or intermediary to block for access by the public or cause to be blocked for access by the public any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource.

TikTok Pro Application:    
Since Tik Tok had a very large user base in India, running into several crores, numerous users are actively looking for alternate ways to run Tik Tok app in India. And scammers are using the desperation as bait to make user download malicious apps and soft-wares.   

A fake news is being circulated by malicious elements that TikTok app is now available as TikTok pro in India. The fake news has made its way not only on WhatsApp but also on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter etc. 

Further to complete their nefarious designs, criminals provide a fake link to download the malicious Tik Tok Pro application on the devices. 

The following observations have been made on the basis of app look and logo, poor grammer and app unavailability on the trusted sources: 

• The logo of the fake Tik Tok Pro app impersonates the logo of the original one. This convinces most of the gullible users that it’s genuine app. 
• In the genuine Tik Tok app, the app name can be seen below the logo, whereas in the fake Tik Tok pro app, the logo and app name are in line with each other and version pro can be found below. 
• The Tik Tok pro app is not available either on Playstore or Appstore. This gives a clear indication that it’s fake and fraudulent version of the original app. 
• The URL http://tiny.cc/TikTokPro does not follow the basic security protocol as the site starts with http rather than https 
• The fake app is full of unnecessary capitalization and grammatical errors. 

Enjoy TikTok Videos and also make Creative Videos again. Now Tiktok is only Available in (Tiktok pro) So Download from below. 

Link : http://tiny.cc/TiktokPro 

In the first sentence, TikTok app name is written as Tiktok (lowercase letter has been used for TikTok). The letter V in Videos and C in Creative has been capitalized unnecessarily. Similarly, in the net sentence A in Available, S is So and D in Download has been wrongly capitalized. Finally word “in” has been wrongly used in place of “as”

The Malicious Link:
On clicking the link http://tiny.cc/TikTokPro a malicious APK is immediately installed of size 2.2 MB having the name Tiktok_pro.apk. The installed APK file specifies it’s source as https://githubusercontent.com/legitprime/10gb/master/Tiktok_pro.apk 

However, when clicked on the link, the following message is displayed “The site can’t be reached”. 

Security Tips:

• Never click on suspicious, untrustworthy links as they may contain malwares. Alternatively, they may redirect you to fake and fraudulent phishing websites meant to harvest your login details. 
• Don’t install apps from outside Playstore and Appstore. This is because they have in build system like Play Protect to ward off malicious apps. The same protection is not available when downloading apps from third party sites. 
• Do not forward any message on social media platform or messenger without checking it’s veracity. Look for other sources like PIB or news channels or fact checking websites to confirm the authenticity of the message. Forwarding fake, fraudulent, malicious message is not only unethical but can also have legal ramifications. 
• Don’t install alternative apps for applications banned by the Indian government. The decision has been taken for greater good and you should not try to bypass it by trying to install alternate version of banned apps.