Published 1 year ago: April 22, 2021 at 12:00 am
Security researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia took to Twitter the other day to warn about a new scam making the rounds — the goofily named “WhatsApp Pink.” This Android app promises to be a fun new variant of the popular chat app that comes with an all-pink UI. And while the “pink app” part might be true, the app isn’t actually an official version of WhatsApp, nor even a clone. It’s malware.
This scam isn’t exactly subtle, but it’s proven effective enough to make a significant number of people believe there truly is an alternate-colour WhatsApp app going around. And the shifty .APK download link is making the rounds through group chats, of all places, which makes it appear slightly more trustworthy. Your friends and/or colleagues wouldn’t lead you astray with malware, would they?
As always, a little common sense prevails in these situations. It’s a good practice never to download and install an .APK someone sends you unless you are absolutely sure you know what it is. You can always pull up your favourite search engine and find the file or app yourself, rather than using a provided link, which will probably tell you real quick whether the app or .APK is itself legitimate; at the very least, you’ll be able to ensure you’re grabbing the right app or .APK from an official website or repository.
It doesn’t matter if it’s your parents, your spouse, or your dog sending you an app (or a link to an app) — don’t download it. You might trust them completely, but you can’t be sure they’ve done their due diligence to determine what it is they’re actually sending you. All the steps you take to ensure your personal security won’t matter if you place your trust in someone who isn’t as thorough.
Sometimes, just pausing a moment to think critically can save you. In this case, would WhatsApp really release a separate app that’s a colour-clone of their original app? Wouldn’t they just add that functionality into the app directly? Consider whether the mere premise of the app seems suspect before you even consider tapping on a link to download it.
However, if you did already install this one, there are a few steps you can take to mitigate the potential damage:
One final tip, which should probably go without saying: Look at that spelling mistake — Watsapp? You never want to download an app if the alleged company offering it can’t even spell its name correctly. Sometimes an app screams “malware,” and you should listen.
More From Lifehacker Australia
- Victoria's Secret's Pink collection on Tuesday unveiled a revamp of its loyalty program and mobile app to focus on college-aged women. The app overhaul includes a fresh UX for easier navigation, as well as access to special deals, first looks at new products, in-app games, member-only shopping events and college-related content, according to a press release shared with Mobile Marketer.
- The Pink Nation app and loyalty program are free to join for iOS and Android users, and new registrants will receive a special offer after downloading the app and each month thereafter, though the company didn't provide additional details. The redesigned app also aims to connect college women with Campus Reps who serve as brand ambassadors at more than 100 U.S. universities.
- To kick off the mobile loyalty initiative, the company will host a concert featuring DJ-producer Marshmello on a double-decker bus at Chicago's Navy Pier on Sept. 22, along with pop-up activations around the city and a members-only event at Pink's flagship store in the "Magnificent Mile" shopping district. The wrapped bus will then depart on a multi-city tour.
With a renewed focus on loyalty and a freshly designed mobile app, Pink aims to deliver a more engaging brand experience for young women and teen girls. By providing college-related content — survival guides, study advice and dorm move-in tips — on its revamped app, Pink could more strongly connect with millennials and Gen Zers who are tuned in to mobile content and may be more receptive than other generations to interacting with games, influencers and other smartphone content. The emphasis on college women also makes sense, as the brand sells collegiate apparel and previously incorporated university emblems and imagery into its digital platforms and stores.
Tying in-person events to its mobile loyalty launch party will likely drum up excitement for the brand, as well as generate earned media from people posting photos of the Chicago events on social media. A UNiDAYS and Ad Age Studio 30 study of more than 22,700 college students found that the digital-native Gen Z demographic typically prefers in-person brand interactions like this over those on digital platforms.
As for the longer-term strategy behind the loyalty app — despite the fact that just 22% of Gen Zers make purchases on a smartphone — Pink is leveraging the exclusivity element with its members-only influencer events and experiential pop-ups to drive continued engagement.
Pink's loyalty program originally launched in 2009 and has grown to more than 2 million active monthly users, per the press release. The brand appears to be now focusing on nurturing deeper connections with established and new fans to drive return customers as the Victoria's Secret banner faces shaky sales growth and shifting consumer preferences.
Today is the fourth day in a row that I have logged in to the new Victoria’s Secret Pink Nation app — which is explicitly for college students and not for me — and attempted to beat more than a million young people at a Pink-ified version of Candy Crush. (I have to be in the top 10 of app users to win whatever the mystery prize is!)
Yesterday, as the result of no direct action on my part other than having the Pink Nation app open for a substantial amount of time over the course of the week, I received a “Shopaholic” badge to add to my in-app badge collection. I have no idea what I have to do to unlock badges called “MVP” or “So Exclusive!” but I assume I have to start buying stuff at some point.
If I’d like to, it would be easy: Members of Pink Nation — the online “community” associated with the 15-year-old lingerie and loungewear brand’s new app — can pick any item up to $19.95 to receive for free (with a $25 purchase!). They can also peruse new daily deals every morning, and use an exclusive code to get an extra 25 percent off clearance items. There are whole outfits suggested for specific campus activities, rendering the shopping process as efficient and idly thrilling as taking a BuzzFeed quiz in the back of a lecture hall.
Screenshot of the author’s first Pink Nation badge!
Screenshot of the author’s fourth Pink Nation trophy!
This is a shopping app, but Pink’s second goal is to create a new social platform for a nationwide sorority — a vast network of college-age women who find their friends and networking opportunities through a shared interest, this brand. PINK isn’t the only retailer doing this, though it’s doing it much more naturally than most.
The bet here is that the brand is as big as it can be, or big enough, on Instagram; now it can try commanding a platform all its own.
The Victoria’s Secret Pink brand has focused on college-age women for years — licensing the logos of dozens of US colleges for lines of loungewear — but now it can do so in a more explicit way. In other words: To be in college and to wear Pink clothes is a way to belong to an exclusive group.
Most of the landing screens, even within the shopping section of Pink Nation, encourage you to take outfit advice from, or otherwise connect with, your campus reps — fellow college students who spent part of their summer traveling to Columbus, Ohio, for extensive brand ambassador training (and, according to several Instagram Stories I watched, rides on a giant Pink-branded Ferris wheel?) and now dedicate eight to 10 unpaid hours per week to promoting the Pink brand at their respective colleges.
Hilary George-Parkin reported on ambassador programs like this for Racked last year, writing, “College brand ambassador programs were popularized in the early aughts as a means of reaching students who, thanks to the internet, were increasingly turning away from traditional advertising channels.” A classic example is Playboy’s fleet of volunteers, who passed out free magazines in frat houses and threw elaborate parties in exchange for campus cred as a cool (and sexy) kid. Today’s Pink reps host “study break” events at the Pink stores near their schools, distribute freebies and coupons, and mostly post on Instagram.
Pink’s brand ambassador program is recommended for marketing or fashion majors but is open to anyone who dreams of a little bit of Instagram celebrity at a large, anonymous school. On an in-app landing page informing members that applications for the brand ambassador program will soon open up for the spring semester, the responsibility listed second from the top is “be an on-campus social media influencer.”
This responsibility, it appears, is robust: The new Pink Nation app features style guides curated by the campus reps, and a press release says it will soon feature “spotlight Q&As” and original “college-relevant” content. Eventually, there will be enough material for a “college survival guide; a rich media hub with articles focused on everything from how to prepare for dorm move-in to cramming for midterms, and eventually, how to get a job.”
Though most colleges have campus-run publications that cover similar material, presumably none of those are building community by giving out free stuff or boosting their readers’ Instagram followings.
The new Pink Nation app’s task is to make shopping and “community” indistinguishable, without relying solely on Instagram.
Instagram ads have become increasingly expensive in the past two years, and they’re no longer a bargain or a sure bet. Even the Instagram-born skin care and beauty giant Glossier is reportedly building its own shopping and social media platform to get away from it.
And secret or exclusive apps for superfans are the next patch-solve: Kati Chitrakorn, reporting for Business of Fashion, pointed out last week that Adidas, Nike, Ralph Lauren, Target, and StitchFix have all either launched or expanded “exclusive” apps in the past month, designed to loop shoppers in to “addictive” daily challenges and build customer loyalty.
Mark Taylor, a president of customer engagement at the consultancy firm Capgemini, told Chitrakorn that these apps turn all of their users into brand ambassadors, who will spend up to twice as much as other customers, and that launching an app like this one can be linked with an annual revenue increase of up to 5 percent.
Why wouldn’t you become a Pink Nation app user and brand loyalist?The key question is, I guess — if you are a college student, and not me, an adult playing iPhone games she is bad at, and winning no free underwear — why wouldn’t you become a Pink Nation app user and brand loyalist? Why not get a slight edge in the job market by advocating for a relatively affordable thing you were likely going to buy anyway? Don’t you want to have girls all over campus seeking you out, becoming more and more grateful to you? Wouldn’t it be easy enough to pull your eyes away from organic chemistry or whatever and log in to just one more app to see what your crew is up to? The future is uncertain, and anxiety is lucrative — people will always spend money to get away from it.
(Also inside the app: You can apply for a Pink Angel credit card, which has a high variable interest rate of 26.49 percent.)
“It’s, like, my dream to be a social media influencer,” Ohio State University campus rep Megan Shahroozi told her campus newspaper last fall, thanking Pink for furthering her career and loading her up with free merch. The student journalist she spoke to for the piece — titled “The Secret is Out: Everything to Know About Campus Reps” — wrapped things up with an apparently sincere thanks of her own: “Free panties have united the Bobcat family, all thanks to our campus representatives.”
Now, the Bobcat family can be united with the entire country.
Our goal this month
Now is not the time for paywalls. Now is the time to point out what’s hidden in plain sight (for instance, the hundreds of election deniers on ballots across the country), clearly explain the answers to voters’ questions, and give people the tools they need to be active participants in America’s democracy. Reader gifts help keep our well-sourced, research-driven explanatory journalism free for everyone. By the end of September, we’re aiming to add 5,000 new financial contributors to our community of Vox supporters. Will you help us reach our goal by making a gift today?