Mobile bills higher than expected? Malware!

BANGALORE, INDIA: Have you checked your bills before you paid them? A sudden, significant rise in your mobile bill could be a sign that your smartphone is infected by malware, finds Quick Heal.

Advanced malware that are capable of infecting your handset, causing it to continually send viral text messages and make calls to thousands of phone numbers each day are being rapidly circulated.

Quick Heal labs found over 1900 such malware incidents in over 1000 smartphones. One such malware, known as Android.

Tediss.A, infects devices and starts sending text messages to premium-rated numbers. A cleverly designed malware such as Android.Tediss.A might send an SMS message just once a month to avoid being detected or it might send multiple messages simultaneously and immediately uninstall itself.

Another malware called Android.Smsspy.I has the capability to call a number and automatically hang up the call based on a timer.

The Android.Cajino. A malware not only sends SMS and makes calls, it also monitors all inbound SMS messages and hides those that match the virus writers' criteria from the user. The Android.cajino.a is a malware that sends a list of files found on the device, and then sends these files and other personal data from your device to a third-party.

The Android.SmForw.BY malware variants silently forward incoming SMS to a remote server.

The Trojan SMS.AndroidOS.Podec subscribes the user to premium-rate subscriptions without the user’s knowledge or consent.

To protect your smartphone from such malware, make sure you download apps only from trusted marketplaces. You can also use a data usage tracker app that will help figure out if your device has been compromised by data broadcasting malware.