A new app called “Find and Call” was uploaded to the app stores of Apple and Google last month. It’s kind of a blasé app, and you’d probably really have to search for it to find it. The big deal is that it’s malware. And even bigger is that it’s the first malware to show up in Apple’s App Store. Google Play (or previous versions of the Android market) has been prone to such apps.
If you were to download and open the app, it would then copy all your contacts, then hit them each up with a text message. The text looks like it’s from you and, get this, it asks your contacts/friends to buy the very same app. Kaspersky Lab points out:
Yes, these pieces of malware are not that ‘cybercriminalistic’. But malware is malware and in this case it steals user’s phone book and uses it for SMS spam. And we’re sure that there must be strict and quick response to such incidents. Period.
It took a while, but, as of yesterday afternoon, Find and Call is no longer available in the Apple App Store or Google Play.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
