New malware puts child porn on your phone and locks it
The malware is a new variant of ransomeware and it floods your phone with photos
Ransomeware, the malware that was alerted last year is back again 2015. Previously, the malware would lock your smartphone and the hacker would demand a particular amount of money to be transferred to his account in order to unlock your phone. During the attack, your smartphone is rendered useless and you cannot use any functions, even after restarting it. The malware spreads in the form of an email, luring the reader to click on the link and be attacked in the bargain.
Now a new version of the ransomeware is lurking around, and this one too is via emails. Phishing and scam emails are being spread and if a user clicks on the link in the email, it downloads a load of porn pictures on your phone and you cannot delete them yourself. The images can only be deleted once you cough up an amount to the hacker. The hacker has been known to ask for a whopping $500 to delete the images.
Once your phone is hijacked, a serious message is thrown up on your screen which reads that you are violating the United States criminal code statutes and the hacker can take care of it for $500.
The message reads “This phone has been found to have accessed explicit or pornographic images and we can take care of this for $500.”
Victims are asked to pay up using Green Dot MoneyPak Card, a money transfer service, and it is difficult to track down the scammers on this channel.
Victims should note that there is absolutely no guarantee that the attacker will release your phone of the images even after you have paid up.
WSMV Channel 4The issue is that you cannot approach the police since you now have porn pictures (usually child porn) on your phone, and you may not be able to explain the truth. Secondly, you cannot even explain the stuff to your spouse.
According to the Review Journal, a 12-year-old girl had been a victim to ransomware and she stated that she was watching a YouTube video and went away from the phone. Later when she came back to it, she found disturbing porn pictures on her screen.
The only way to stay away from these troubles is to resist visiting unknown websites and don’t email unknown emails, and install a good antivirus. Lastly, also it is advised that you avoid syncing your data to online cloud services unless absolutely necessary.