Saigon Securities Inc (SSI) has warned its investors against downloading scam programmes that could counterfeit the brokerage firm’s applications and steal investors’ information.

Local media reported on Wednesday that SSI discovered app stores of the world’s largest application providers – Google and Apple – were offering fake software programmes.

The fake programmes were developed by scammers to represent financial organisations and steal information of investors who logged into these applications and submitted their info.

SSI was reported to have detected a fake application on Google’s app store, which is named after the company’s programme SSI Mobile Trading.

The authentic application was developed by SSI only for Apple-branded iPhones and iPads that run on the operation system iOS.

The application, which must be downloaded from the Apple Store, is designed with an SSI logo on a blue background and displays “Saigon Securities Incorporation” as the name of the service provider.

The fake programme, also named SSI Mobile Trading, was designed by Singapore-based Lee Kim Alliance Pte Ltd.

SSI sent a warning to its investors to report the case, saying the app SSI Mobile Trading on Google store was not a product of the company and investors should not log into this programme to prevent their personal information from being stolen.

SSI also recommended investors, who had downloaded and logged into the fake programme, to change their real SSI account passwords and PIN codes to protect information.

After the fake programme was discovered, SSI submitted a report to Google on the case.

On Thursday, Google removed the fake application from its play store. — VNS