Fake 'The Roar of the Pharaoh' Android app latest Trojan scam

29.03.2012
It may look like an app for a Chinese game called "The Roar of the Pharaoh," but it's actually just another fake app that's really a malware Trojan in disguise, according to researchers warning about it today.

Writing in a blog, Sophos security researcher a "malicious application" that "gathers sensitive information" about the Android device it lands on, collecting personal information and technical details, including phone number, and "sends it off to the malware's authors."

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"Like many other mobile Trojans, this one sends SMS messages to premium rate SMS numbers and is capable of reading your SMSs as well," Wisniewski says in his blog.

He points out that SMS scams work because "the mobile phone companies provide the payment processing and the bad guys have their money and are long gone before you ever receive the phone bill with the fraudulent charges."

Sophos has identified the Android Trojan as Andr/Stiniter-A, and says it doesn't ask for specific permissions during installation. "The Roar of the Pharaoh" is a legitimate Chinese game , though the Android app for it is not believed to be distributed on Google's site called Google Play (formerly Android Marketplace).