Trojans, never short of innovations

Compels Android users to pay high mobile bills

If the Internet is a boon to the world, there are also hazards associated with it. One such hazard comes in the form of malicious software, or in common, malware. There are cyber criminals all over the world who create malware and use them to infect computers and mobile phones connected to the Internet.  Once a malware is a resident of a computer, cyber criminals can access it without the notice of its user and misuse it for their financial gains.

One such malware, which has recently been unearthed, is in the form of a Trojan called HippoSMS. This Trojan is targeting Android phones across various countries including Russia, China and Ukraine. Users affected by this Trojan end up paying high mobile bills.  And it’s only after a user gets a physical copy of the bill at his door step that he realizes that something wrong has happened.

Although the modus operandi of this Trojan is very simple, the platform supporting the modus operandi is nevertheless highly sophisticated. It is due to this that it goes unnoticed till the users get their mobile bill. The Trojan is injected to an application, which looks legitimate. When this application is installed by users onto their Android phones, the Trojan gets activated and starts its malicious tasks.

Read on to know how Android Trojan makes you pay high mobile bill for SMSs that you did not send at all.

Sends SMS to high profile numbers:

The Trojan sends out costly text messages without your notice from your Android mobile to high profile numbers. As a result of this, you end up paying for costly text messages, which you didn’t send at the first place.

Deletes messages sent by service provider:

Once activated, the Trojan scans and monitors all incoming messages and deletes the messages that the service provider sends. Service providers often send messages such as bills, current balance, etc. to the consumers. Since these messages are never received or are deleted before the user reads them, users are unaware of the running bills and end up paying high bills at the end of the month.