User’s contact list compromised by luring free mobile!

A new malware has arrived on WhatsApp. It has been spread with the aim of earning money through advertising, but a security researcher says that the people spreading it can also steal the personal or financial information of the user through it. This malware comes through a message. A link is given in this message, which when clicked opens a fake Google Play page of Huawei Mobile App. As soon as it is installed, malware also gets added to the user’s mobile. The dangerous thing is that this malware gets access to the user’s contact list and sends messages to his WhatsApp contacts without the user knowing.

Malware researcher Lukas Stefanko (@LukasStefanko), who works for ESET, has shared a video, which clearly shows how this malware works. First of all, the user will receive a message inviting him to win a free mobile phone and a link will also be included in the message. Now if the user greedily clicks on this link, a fake Google Play page of Huawei Mobile App will open in the browser. This page looks exactly like Google Play. If the user downloads and installs this app, then like other apps, this app also asks for many accesses to the phone from the user. As soon as you give access, it takes over your phone. Stefanko has called this malware ‘Worm’.

The researcher says that this WhatsApp malware has been designed in such a way that it uses the quick reply feature of Android. This means that as soon as you receive a WhatsApp message, this malware will automatically reply to that message and you will not even know. This message will also have the text ‘WIN FREE MOBILE’ written in it and will include the same link. If the reason is that this malware is becoming viral rapidly. Lukas says that this malware is sending messages every hour.

Not only this, Stefanko believes that at present this malware has been spread only for the purpose of earning money by showing advertisements, but it can also be used to obtain personal and financial information of the user.