Fake Angry Birds ensnares 80,000 on Chrome Store

Thousands of browser game fans have been tricked into installing knock-off versions of Rovio games that alter ad content on many of the web’s biggest hubs.

The Google Chrome Web Store is well known for its hands off approach to screening what games are allowed on the platform, but as more users flock to the speedy browser, this could have dangerous consequences.

The suspects in question are a series of games designed to look like games in the hit Angry birds series.

Barracuda Networks has revealed these titles contain code that could potentially lead to a user having their browser hijacked.

Over 80,000 users have granted the apps permission to run on their browser, despite the warning the games will receive full access to a player’s web activity.

The games come from playook.info, a manufacturer of free Flash games.

While titles like Angry Birds are immensely popular on Android and iOS, those without a smartphone or tablet have no way of accessing some of the newer games on the market like Bad Piggies.

While there is definitely merit in the openess of the Chrome store, it seems only a matter of time before Google decides to crack down on such flagrant abuses.