Pokemon GO, along with being fun, is also emerging as social media bait. Facebook is filled with Pokemon Go groups and accounts, many with millions of followers, even as the hype slows. Also there are many such accounts up on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram. According to a recent report, around 30% of Pokemon GO social media accounts hyperlink to Trojans or are fraudulent.
Pokemon Go accounts not as harmless as they appear
Recently researchers from Proofpoint looked at a sample of 543 Pokemon GO accounts across Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter. Around 30% of these accounts were found to be suspicious in some way. About 44 accounts had links to download files, many in the subjects of Pokémon GO, game guides, etc. About 79 were imposter accounts, and 21 accounts promised “free giveaways,” noted Kotaku. Even though Instagram was not included in the research, it has more than its fair share of spam accounts as well.
The website also observed that five of all the Pokemon Go accounts on Facebook had more likes than the official page. Most of these accounts are harmless fan pages, meaning they will only inconvenience users by linking them to spammy sites, but many of the accounts are not so harmless as they harbor hyperlinks to Trojans, says Kotaku.
Some of us of course know that a Facebook Page will not actually give us free PokeCoins, but it is no surprise that these tactics are being used with a game that has such a large audience. Earlier, some of the tactics being used were a bit sneakier. An official-looking page in July offered to distribute legendary Pokemon if trainers filled out a form with their details, says Kotaku.
Is Pokemon Go heading to Android Wear?
In other news, Apple announced at its press event last week that Pokemon Go is coming to the Apple Watch before the end of the year. So far, there has been no announcement in respect to a fully-fledged Android Wear app for Pokemon Go, but there are some followers at Pokemon Go Hub who think they have seen some references to Android Wear in the latest release of the main app, according to TechRadar.
We certainly do not know when the Android Wear app might come though. Some sources are saying that the underlined lines of codes are just a reference to the aforementioned Pokemon Go wearable. We will probably have more info about it in October when Google is expected to launch its two new phones dubbed the Pixel and Pixel XL.
