Watch Out for Fake Sora Apps

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There's much to say about Sora, which is essentially OpenAI's TikTok for AI slop. But putting my concerns aside for what appears to be a glorified deepfake machine, it's evident the app is popular. OpenAI says Sora hit one million downloads in under five days, likely fueled by interest from users seeing hyper-realistic videos going viral on social media.

But with big hype, comes big risk for fraud. While OpenAI made Sora free to download, the app started out invite-only, which only built anticipation for users who wanted in. As such, those users might open the App Store, search for Sora, and download the first app that makes itself available—especially if they can start using it right away. That's exactly what happened in this case.

As reported by TechCrunch, over a dozen fake Sora apps were made available on the iOS App Store following the launch of OpenAI's real app. These apps were either called "Sora" or "Sora 2," the latter in reference to the specific video model powering these hyper-realistic AI generations.

You might assume developers hastily uploaded these apps to the App Store in an attempt to pull traffic from users curious about Sora. And while that is true, a number of these apps were already live on the App Store long before OpenAI ever announced the Sora app—some of which were operating under different names. It's not clear how many changed their names in this situation, but it's apparent that many did adjust their names shortly after Sora launched. TechCrunch says some apps had been available on the App Store since earlier this year, while others were available since last year.

Apple's App Store isn't the only affected app market here. Google's Play Store played host to fraudulent Sora apps, as well. Taken together, these apps were downloaded more than 300,000 times, with more than 80,000 of those occurring after Sora's official launch. Perhaps the most successful fake Sora app, "Sora 2 – AI Video Generator," pulled in over 50,000 downloads alone once OpenAI released Sora. TechCrunch reports that these apps collectively earned over $160,000, all from apps claiming to be something else entirely.

At this time, most, but not all, of these apps have been pulled from app stores.

How to spot fake apps on your app store

First of all, if the app you're trying to download is trendy and popular, like Sora, assume there will be developers trying to spoof it. Malicious developers want to trick users looking for one app into downloading theirs, whether it's to install malware on your device, steal your information, or make money off you by running ads. If they know a million people are going to be downloading an app, hosting a fraudulent one makes for good business.

When looking through the app store's results page, pay close attention to the name of the app. Sure, it might have "Sora" in the title, but does it have any odd, extraneous words added in? "Sora 2 – AI Video Generator" isn't the worst fake name I've ever seen, but the app's name is Sora, not Sora 2. OpenAI also likely wouldn't add AI Video Generator to its own product's name: They probably know the product speaks for itself, and wouldn't feel the need to clutter up the name with extra details. Instead, the real title is "Sora by OpenAI," likely done to both distinguish itself from legitimate apps named Sora, as well as indicate that it is indeed made by OpenAI.

Speaking of which, you should always make sure the app in question is distributed by the company that made it. If you're trying to figure out which of the Sora apps on your app store is the real one, it's going to be the one that says it's made by OpenAI. I'm not talking about the title alone, either. Tap on the app, and look at the developer name underneath the title. If it doesn't match the exact company you know develops the app, don't download it.

You'll also want to investigate the copy and images advertising the app here. Is everything written well, and free of spelling and grammar mistakes? Are the images high quality, and reflect the experience the app it advertising? Don't download something that feels slapped together: Some fraudsters don't bother with the finer details.

Finally, make sure the app in question is actually available on the platform you're using. Sora is currently iOS-only, which means any app claiming to be Sora by OpenAI on the Play Store is a fraud. If you're on Android, you'll simply need to wait for OpenAI to make the app for your platform.

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