ID: IRCNE2012011361
Date: 2012-01-04
According to “ComputerWorldUK”, scareware distributors are targeting smartphone users who search the Web for popular mobile apps, experts from antivirus vendor Kaspersky Lab have warned.
Rogue programs that masquerade as antivirus software have been used to scam computer users for many years. The money generated by such schemes is regularly used to fund other illegal activities.
The high profitability of scareware has pushed some cybercriminal gangs into previously unexploited markets, like those of Mac computers and now smartphones.
According to the Maslennikov, mobile malware creators are using black hat search engine optimization (BHSEO) to poison Google search results for popular mobile apps like Opera Mini with malicious links. The links lead to scareware pages that ask visitors to perform online malware scans that display bogus privacy and security alerts.
After performing the scans, users are advised to download a special anti-malware application that fixes the problems allegedly found on their devices. This application is called VirusScanner and is designed to silently send SMS messages to premium-rate numbers. Kaspersky has identified versions of this Trojan for Android and older Java-enabled mobile operating systems like Symbian.
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