Fake Telegram app on more than 100,000 phones infected U.S., UAE Androids
A bogus version of the messaging app Telegram infected downloaders’ phones with a pernicious strain of malware that sent devices searching for malicious sites on an endless loop, according to Symantec research published Monday. The MobonoGram 2019 app was downloaded more than 100,000 times — mostly by users in Iran, the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates — before it was scrubbed from Google’s marketplace. The program’s developers borrowed open-source code from the real Telegram app, a program that provides encrypted messaging, while adding code that forced the app to try to connect to gaming sites, pornography and other suspicious URLs on a constant basis. The app also contained Android.FakeYouWon, a malware that displays websites promoting fake offers and scams. Symantec’s discovery of MobonoGram 2019 provides the latest reminder that scammers use programs in the Google Play Store as Trojan horses to infiltrate users’ phones. Many international users would have been […]
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