No, these 'Fortnite beta' APKs are definitely not the real thing

Fake Fortnite APKs have once again started popping up online as the hype builds for the game’s upcoming release on Android devices.

Epic Games’ battle royale title is the biggest game in the world right now, pulling in millions of players every day on pretty much every modern gaming platform you can think of with one notable exception: Android.

Just last month Epic confirmed that an Android version of Fortnite will officially launch this summer.

Unfortunately, there are some people out there that are looking to pray on the game’s enormous fan-base — particularly it’s younger members — by fooling them into downloading malicious software masquerading as beta versions of the free-to-play game.

Bogus websites claiming to offer ‘Fortnite beta app’ downloads first started popping up in the past few weeks, but a new scam, spotted by the folks over at Android Police, takes things a step further by positioning an ad in a prominent position within the YouTube app. You can see this in the embedded tweet below.

I’ve personally seen this advert pop up on my own YouTube feed several times over the past few weeks too. While it’s now been superseded by a Google Pixel 2 promotion, the ad, which links to a “Fortnite Android beta app” and is titled “Fortnite Android Now Available,” appeared at random in my Home tab on more than one occasion.

As the Android Police report notes, the APK file linked to from the ad showed up as a security threat when scanned for viruses. It’s not clear what that threat is but it should go without saying that you should avoid it completely.

Of course, we’ll be here to let you know as soon as Fortnite officially launches on the Google Play Store. In the meantime, you could always spend a few hours hunting the enemy in Fortnite’s main inspiration and biggest rival, PUBG Mobile.

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