KUALA LUMPUR: About seven million smartphone users nationwide are
exposed to threats from cyber hackers who make use of their gadgets to
steal their money.
Bukit Aman Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan said lack of awareness on the risks of smartphone security made users easy victims.
“The
modus operandi is to send short messaging service known as Trojans to
users who unknowingly will be charged when replying to the SMS,” he
said. “Consumers only realise this when they are slapped with high phone
bills although they did not use the service.”
The scam was
detected via applications such as “Type-On” which, when downloaded,
would cause smartphone users to bear the cost although they had
uninstalled the application.
Lookout Mobile Security was quoted
by AFP as saying that worldwide, users lost millions of dollars last
year via malware and toll fraud that attacked smartphone users for
accessing applications from unofficial sources rather than trusted ones
such as Apple or Google online shops.
Syed
Ismail said police statistics recorded from January to September this
year showed that losses incurred via SMS or phone calls totalled
RM21.8mil.
The hackers target users of Internet banking or phone
banking by hacking and abusing the network, including the online
purchases of goods.
Online purchases recorded the highest losses
of RM14.5mil (1,298 cases) followed by SMS or phone call with RM3.4mil
(412 cases), hacking (RM3.3mil via 24 cases) and Internet banking and
phone banking with RM590,000 (74 cases). - Bernama
All should be careful: Hello, you could lose millions!
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