A virus was detected in the App Store and Google Play, which is a spam bot designed for a smartphone. The malicious code was detected by the specialized services of the mobile operator Megafon and by AppleInsider.ru journalists.
The victims of the malicious application were owners of iPhones and Android devices. The virus itself is contained in the Find and Call application. According to the annotation, the program should help users make free calls from a cell phone to social networks, Skype, etc.
The word for free has attracted people who have not encountered information technology fraud. After launching the dangerous program, the address book was completely copied, then the information was sent to the server of the virus developers. After that, SMS was sent to all the phones copied from the address book with the following content: "Now I'm here and it's easier for me to call using the application (link) for free." A valid phone number was confirmed in the "Sender" line.
It is not possible to estimate the scale of the fraud. About two and a half thousand messages were sent to almost eight hundred numbers. This is the data on "Megafon" in the capital region. Those users who followed the link also became part of the spam network, infecting their mobile phone with a virus.
Some uncertainty is also caused by the fact that the developers of the program have been identified. However, they deny their involvement in the creation of the spam network. According to them, everything that happened is the result of a technical failure of the beta version of the application. In addition, SMS is sent not at the expense of the deceived user, but from the equipment of the authors of the program. Formally, a dangerous application cannot even be called a virus, since the application gains access to the address book with the user's permission. Also, if you enter your own details for email, social networks and PayPal, you may lose your accounts or make them available to the application.
The link is blocked by most operators, however, the program is still available in the App Store and Google Play.
