Fraudware virus targeting Android users in China and South East Asia

NQ Mobile has identified, “Copycat App,” a new fraudware virus threat targeting Android users in China and several countries in South East Asia.

“Copycat App,” identified as a.frau.longjian.a, appears to Android users as an update of the extremely popular NetDragon 91 Assistant app. When the user chooses to update with this fraudulent app, it automatically downloads other repackaged apps in the background that consume the user’s data.

The main nefarious behaviors of these repackaged apps are to:

• Subscribe to fee based services via SMS without the user’s knowledge, resulting in unwanted bill charges
• Access and collect various details about user’s device, such as phone information (e.g. phone number, IMEI, IMSI) and user’s apps, invading the user’s privacy.

At the time of identification and inoculation, the number of infections has been identified as 193 users within a combination of mainland China, Angola, Hong Kong, Iraq, Macao, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam.