A fake and possibly malicious version of Facebook-owned WhatsApp was found lurking on Google Play Store as “Update WhatsApp Messenger” with developer name as ‘WhatsApp Inc*’.

When IANS checked it on the Play Store, we found the app has been downloaded up to 5,000 times. There is another version under the same name which has a million downloads.

The original WhatsApp has 1 billion downloads.

The existence of the shady software was first highlighted by the popular WhatsApp change tracking website WABetaInfo, via Twitter user @MujtabaMHaq, IB Times reported late on Thursday.

Thanks to report this.

Please followers, DON'T DOWNLOAD THIS APP! IT'S FAKE!
WhatsApp Business IS NOT OFFICIALLY AVAILABLE YET FOR ALL.

Check only official channels to download WhatsApp Business *in future*.@WhatsApp should ask to @GooglePlay to remove it as soon as possible. https://t.co/Uve3Y3vsbp

— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) October 31, 2017

According to the report, a version of popular mobile game Temple Run 2 can also be found which was uploaded in October.

The software posing as WhatsApp Business already have several users complaining about it in comments section.

“DON’T DOWNLOAD THIS APP! IT’S FAKE! WhatsApp Business is not officially available yet for all,” the WABetaInfo social media account tweeted to its 30,000 followers.

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It added: “Check only official channels to download WhatsApp Business in future.”

WhatsApp Business is yet to launch as a standalone service.

WhatsApp Down Trending Top In India

WhatsApp users across the world, including in India, heaved a sigh of relief on Friday after the instant messaging app was restored after it went down globally, sending people into a tizzy.

Users were able to send and receive messages and could log into their WhatsApp accounts after a brief outage period.

According to an Independent website DownDetector, 60 per cent of customers were having issues connected to Facebook-owned WhatsApp. People experienced problems sending texts or were unable to log into the app.

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“A further 25 per cent report issues receiving messages and 14 per cent are struggling to login,” Express.co.uk said.

Several users took to Twitter to confirm the development and vent their frustration with #whatsappdown trending on the micro-blogging site.

WhatsApp was also down in India and people were unable to connect with their friends or relatives.

People experienced a similar situation in May this year for a few hours in most parts of the world.

WhatsApp has 1.3 billion monthly active users globally with over 200 million users in India.