House Party, the video calling platform, which has gone viral since the beginning of self-isolation, is being deleted by users over fears that the app may have been compromised.
What is House Party?
House Party is an app that allows friends, family members or co-workers to go online and hang out in a virtual "house party," engage in face-to-face conversation, and even play one of the many in-app games with your "room" mates.
The app arrived in 2015 but was bought by Epic Games, the folks responsible for "Fortnite" last year. The social networking app has only recently gained in popularity as millions of people around the world are forced to stay indoors amid the coronavirus crisis, leading many to use the platform to connect with their near and dear ones.
Users report Netflix, Spotify accounts hacked
Several users have taken to social media to report that their smartphones were hacked after installing the House Party app. Twitter has seen a recent explosion of tweets from users reporting their Netflix, Spotify, PayPal and even bank accounts hacked after signing into the House Party app.
"Everyone who has the house party app I advise you to delete your account and delete the app as this is seemingly how fraud is happening and people's emails etc are getting hacked," wrote one user. "DELETE HOUSE PARTY! My PayPal which was with the same email address has been hacked and money taken from my bank!," commented another. "It's happened to other people too." Here are some of the other tweets:
Epic Games claims it's a smear campaign, offers $1million bounty
Reports that the app was compromised urged hundreds of thousands of users to delete the app overnight over fears they might get hacked too. However, Epic Games released a statement saying there is "no evidence to suggest a link between Houseparty and the compromises of other unrelated accounts." The company claimed that it was being targeted by what appears to be a "paid commercial smear campaign" against the app.
"We are investigating indications that the recent hacking rumours were spread by a paid commercial smear campaign to harm Houseparty," the app's official handle tweeted. "We are offering a $1,000,000 bounty for the first individual to provide proof of such a campaign to bounty@houseparty.com."
