Mobile games may hike your bills be aware of cyber criminals

Beware smart phone users. You may not be doing a smart thing when you download a free software or a mobile game on your cellphone. For cyber criminals have now zeroed in on you.
Unknown to you, your mobile phone might start dialling premium rate numbers across the globe.

Blame it on a self-launching Trojan that has dropped into your cellphone when you were downloading a free software or a game. Cyber criminals, who are controlling such Trojans, will be dialling the numbers, but you will be the one footing the bill. 

A recent research by Kaspersky Laboratories has found that a new game, called 3D Anti-Terrorist, is often popping up on many websites. Windows mobile smartphone users can download it for free. It takes up just 1.5MB space, and comes with a file named reg.exe.

Kaspersky lab expert Denis Masllenikov has said in a report that the file is actually a Trojan that calls premium rate numbers across the globe. It gets installed the moment a user completes downloading the game on his smartphone.

Masllenikov’s report says that the Trojan has been made by Russian virus writers. Once installed, it launches itself. It was detected last month, and ever since it has been found that calls from infected phones are being made to six premium rate numbers across the globe.

Last year too, the Kaspersky labs had detected a similar kind of Trojan. It came with a free software called iporn player, which promised smartphone users access to various porn sites. Once the player was installed, the Trojan started calling premium rate numbers in places like Austria, Lichtenstein, Burkina Faso, Switzerland and Nauru.

The bills of the infected phones ran up to huge amounts, and the users came to know of it only after receiving the bills.

IT experts say that the only way to avoid smart phones being infected by such viruses and Trojans is not to download software or other files from unknown websites. The users should only download software from phone manufacturers’ official websites.

Masllenikov said, “Cyber criminals can target any person’s phone at any location. If smart phones are widely used in a particular country, users there are more likely to fall prey to this.”

Tenchnology evangelist Vijay Mukhi told DNA, “The premium rate calls are mostly made to pay-per-call international numbers and friendship lines. There could be a person somewhere in the world, who has actually subscribed to this service after being offered heavy discounts on the existing market rates. He will be making the calls, but the charges for them will be paid by the user whose phone has been infected.”