Scary, possibly bogus, Brave Browser download site!?

I searched for “Brave Browser”, and found (among other hits), this link to a page where people could download Brave Browser for Windows 10 64-bit:

The address to this download page LOOKED very legit so I clicked on it, and then clicked on its “download” link, and installed it.

The installation and launch seemed unusually slow…maybe around 90 seconds.

After installation, I noticed that the browser mainn window had a link at top right that was worded something like “save passwords” or “password manager”. Curious, I clicked on it, expecting that it was a shortcut to where I could turn ON or OFF the saving of passwords in the browser’s ‘vault’. (I would never want it ON).

The browser hummed away for about 30 seconds and then, to my dismay, displayed a long list of my ‘passwords’, some with hash characters (I didn’t examine the list closely, but it appeared to be possibly an actual list of many of my online account passwords. The password saving feature was apparently ON by default, which should NOT be the case! Horrified, (where could this newly-installed browser have possibly gotten those passwords?) I immediately quit the browser and uninstalled it.

Then I did what I should have done originally: I double checked whether this had been a valid Microsoft Store software download link. I went direct to the Microsoft Store, and what do you know? I could not find any brave browser download link, anywhere.

Is there a way to verify for sure whether the original download page address is legit, or just a clever fake?

Yes, there is a way. Always download any software from the source.
In this case from Brave.
Never download from any other site. This is the only official source you can find.

Software creators that use the stores (Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc) use to place the link to the apps in their website. That’s the only way you have to know it is the legit link.

Just a FYI, this was brought up last year and it IS legitimate.

Your comment is reassuring; however, for some reason, I never found a Brave Browser download page, when I went to the Microsoft Store’s main page. And when I used the original link that I found via Search, which is HTTPS: followed by
//apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/brave-browser/XP8C9QZMS2PC1T
…the link seemed to be a microsoft store site, but I couldn’t navigate to it from the main microsoft store URL. Hence the link I found via Search didn’t seem to really exist on Microsoft’s Store site. So while your comment is reassuring, it still doesn’t fully answer the question of whether the original link was a legit Microsoft Store link.

Works on my PC. Don’t know why not on yours, though.

@Alnonymous,
If the link brought you to the official Microsoft Store, then it is perfectly fine to download.