Malware on the smartphone: thousands fall victim to dangerous spam SMS every day
Many cell phone users are falling into an SMS trap set by online criminals, current figures from network operators show. Increasingly, the fraudulent messages are also spreading via messengers such as WhatsApp. Several thousand German customers of all major mobile providers are currently falling victim to dangerous spam text messages every day. Deutsche Telekom alone records an average of 7,000 to 8,000 customers a day who click on links contained in such text messages and infect their phones with malware. The figures come from analyses by the company's IT security experts, as a Telekom spokesperson explained when asked. The experts also observe that attackers have increasingly tried to spread the spam messages via messengers such as WhatsApp or Telegram in recent days. Often, the text messages pretend to come from parcel delivery companies. Instead of information about a delivery status, the links lead users to hijacked websites where users of Android devices are asked to download...