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Cops cuff premium-rate SMS Android malware suspects

French plod nab duo after 100k euros slurped

French police have arrested two men over an Android malware scam that netted an estimated €100,000, according to L'Informaticien.

The unnamed duo are suspected of infecting more than 2,000 Android smartphones with the Foncy Trojan, a strain of malware that sent text messages to premium-rate numbers at a cost of €4.5 a pop. The malicious code appeared in various guises, most recently as a fake EA Sports Madden NFL 2012 game, net security firm Sophos reports.

The malware was unusually sophisticated. Foncy exploited a vulnerability to root the phone before surreptitiously spewing SMSes. Infected phones also silently polled an IRC channel to obtain instructions from hackers. ®

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