Leading global consumer and enterprise drone manufacturer DJI has issued a warning to customers about the risk of scams in downloading apps for its product from third-party sources, and urges users to obtain operating interfaces only from its own service.
DJI recently posted the message on its official in-house forums and other communication outlets, which have subsequently been circulated by drone operators on social media. In it, the company says it has detected a number of “imitated apps” available on various platforms – including Google Play – that wind up scamming recipients.
The marketing of bogus apps is a recurring ploy of online rip-off artists, with popular DJI drones being an obvious favored target within the UAV sector.
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According to posts on DJI forums and social media, the ploy usually trips up owners of older model drones or those that haven’t been flown of late. A logical updating of the DJI Fly app prior to renewed flight leads some clients to Google Play or other third-party platforms that no longer carry the interface. Procuring it results in a charge of what one victim said was nearly $40.
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The fraudulent apps reportedly never remain online for long before being identified by platform administrators – only to crop up anew before long. Given that regular activity of scammers, DJI urges its drone customers to obtain software exclusively from its own download center.
DJI’s full advisory appears as follows:
Dear DJI Users,
We would love to call for your attention here.
We notice that there are some imitated DJI Apps (e.g. DJI Fly – Go for Drone models, DJI Earning app) on Google Play made by illegal individuals for fraud. Which may cause risk to the property security of our users.
In order to protect the rights and interests of our users, we have complained about this problem to the Playstore. As the brand owner, we will actively protect the rights and interests of our users. As a victim of such a case, we will also actively protect DJI’s intellectual property rights.
At the same time, we recommend that you download the App from DJI official channels to ensure that you can get a safe and reliable version. And here is the link to our official download center: https://www.dji.com/global/downloads
If you find such similar imitated apps, please do not click to download, and contact us for assistance in time, we will try our best to protect your rights, thank you for your understanding and support.
DJI Support
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