Smartphone virus pickpockets your virtual wallet
Staff Reporter 2012-11-08 17:17
Smartphones are becoming more and more susceptible to viruses. (Photo/Xinhua)
Some smartphone customers have discovered their virtual wallets being secretly emptied by applications they have downloaded containing a pickpocketing virus, reports the Guangzhou-based Xin Kuai Bao.
A man surnamed Yu in Guangzhou told a reporter that the 200 yuan (US$32) in his account for his cell phone disappeared overnight without him having made any phone calls. He later found out that an application called Anhe market was taking money from his account as soon as he added money to it. Yu was convinced that the application contained a virus.
This virus is a trap to secretly charge people money, said a professor surnamed Feng at the South China University of Technology, and is hidden in some popular applications. There have been 200,000 victims of the virus since October, according to Feng's research. The virus automatically orders mobile services for the customers without the customer's authorization and blocks payment or reward messages.
In addition, the virus is contagious. Once a customer uses an application containing the virus, other applications or software in the phone could be "infected" with the virus.
Installing antivirus software is the way to beat the crooks, Feng said. Updating antivirus software regularly is also necessary to protect the safety of the smartphone.
