SMS-Sender Trojans Served by Shady Google Play Replica Site

Although the Olympics and the Paralympics have come to an end, researchers say that cybercriminals are still relying on them to spread their malicious elements. A site that attempts to replicate Google Play – iplay-andro7d.net - has been found to serve all sorts of shady apps that hide an SMS Trojan.

The applications hosted on the site – Skype, Firefox, Facebook, Instagram and others – hide a nasty Trojan (Trojan.AndroidOS.Generic.A) that sends out SMS messages to premium rate numbers, inflating the bills of unsuspecting Android users, GFI researchers note.

Apparently, the malicious app market - proudly displaying the Olympics logo - only serves the Trojan-infested software to internauts who access it from an Android device, a trick successfully utilized in the past.

Again, we will take this opportunity to advise users to refrain from downloading applications from untrusted alternative Android markets. Also, beware of Olympics scams as it seems they’re still doing the rounds.