In two days, two news stories about a hoax based on getting the Internet user to subscribe to a high-cost, special-rate messaging service, without knowing it. First was the report of fraud through messages apparently coming from a Facebook contact. Now, it has been Google itself who has closed 22 deceptive applications. They were offered in the Android market and offered the download of games such as Angry Birds, horoscopes or desktop wallpapers. In reality, when the Internet user clicked on them without reading the conditions of use, they subscribed to a messaging service with special pricing, which represents a high cost for them since these types of messages are paid by the recipient in the monthly bill. your operator. Even if the user read the conditions of use, their wording would hardly make them aware of the consequences of accepting them.
In the United States, the trick of these applications does not work because the code used to activate them is not supported. However, its operation has been detected in different countries, such as Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Estonia, the United Kingdom, Italy, Israel, France and Germany. There is no news about Spain.
This weekend, a malicious message was distributed on the Spanish-speaking Internet that was apparently sent by a contact of the recipient on Facebook. "Have you seen that you are in a video?" says the note that is received. By clicking on the link, it directs the Internet user to a page that simulates the Facebook design, but is hosted on a Blogspot domain, Google's blogging platform, which is used by cyber scammers to send their fraudulent message. The page asks the Internet user to install a plug-in in the browser with the excuse of being able to view the aforementioned video. This plugin is a supposed extension to view YouTube videos, but in reality it is malicious code that is used to spread this threat to other users. The next step is to request the mobile phone number with the excuse of providing a code for viewing. These types of websites profit by subscribing the user to a special pricing service for receiving SMS messages.