A new
malware scheme has been discovered that pushes fake antivirus software to
Android users via in-app advertising. Once installed, the trojan informs the
victims they need to pay up to remove threats on their device.
The malware
in question, detected as “Android.Fakealert.4.origin” by Russian security firm Doctor Web, has been
around since at least October 2012 according to the company. This latest fraud is a particularly
complex one: it involves multiple Android apps displaying advertisements, a
relatively inexpensive means to reach a wide audience, which prompt users to
scan their mobile devices for “viruses” and then lures them to a site where
they are told to download the fake antivirus.
While
Android malware that masks itself as an antivirus for Google’s platform is
nothing new, and neither are ads in Android apps pushing malware, but putting
the two together can certainly be effective. This is naturally a practice that
Windows users are all too familiar with, and it’s worrying to see it ported
to Android along with all the other previous schemes we’ve already seen so far.
Here are two
examples of the ads being used:
This is what
Android users see if they are tricked into installing the fake antivirus:
Just like on other
platforms, this malware displays a fake scanning result to intimidate users to
purchase the fake antivirus program. Doctor Web recommends for Android users to
be “more skeptical about various ads displayed by applications and to use
reliable anti-virus software, when necessary.” In other words, if you’re going
to install an Android antivirus, make sure it’s a legitimate one on Google Play
rather than something you found via a sketchy ad in another app. [Source]
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