President Trump and tech experts are worried that TikTok is spyware, but the fake "TikTok Pro" Android app is the real deal. The app can steal your text messages, photos, location, Facebook passwords, take screenshots, tap your microphone, make phone calls, send texts, and launch other apps.

The TikTok Pro app is not in the Google Play Store, but with the U.S. government declaring that it will ban TikTok unless this Chinese-made app finds an American buyer, many people may be forced to "go off-road" to find the real thing. TikTok Pro is waiting in the wings to trick them into downloading it.

"Users looking forward to using the TikTok app amidst the ban may look for other ways to download the app," Shivang Desai of security firm ZScaler wrote in a blog post yesterday (September 8) detailing this new spyware In a blog post yesterday (Sept. 8), security firm ZScaler's Shivang Desai detailed the new spyware threat. By doing so, users could accidentally install malicious apps."

This is not the first time a fake "TikTok Pro" app has appeared. Desai noted that previous ones were promoted through WhatsApp and text message spam and displayed many ads once installed. The app was more annoying than harmful.

Desai did not specify how this newer, more dangerous variant was propagated, but the same route of text and message chat may be a safe bet.

Once the fake TikTok app is installed, Desai wrote, it immediately hides its own icon, perhaps to make users think the installation failed; to steal Facebook credentials, it creates a fake Facebook login page, then creates a username and password, and wait for the user to enter their username and password.

"This feature can easily be extended to steal other information, such as banking credentials.

"Avoiding 'TikTok Pro' and other malicious Android apps is very easy. First, do not download or install any apps that are not in the official Google Play app store. (On older Android phones, this can be prevented by unchecking "Unknown Sources" in the security settings.)

Second, download and install the best Android antivirus apps that will immediately block such Android malware.