This Malware Takes Over Android Phones to Place Fake Banking Calls

A new type of malware will trick you into divulging your banking information to hackers. As reported by The Hacker News, researchers have unearthed a fresh variant of the “FakeCall” malware strain. FakeCall uses “voice phishing” to trick victims into giving up information they otherwise would not share.

FakeCall abuses accessibility services on Android in order to take control of the smartphone, and run malicious tasks. In this case, FakeCall scrapes the information it sees on-screen, and gives itself the permission it needs to run.

Once the malware is on the victim’s smartphone, it prompts the user to set it as the default calling app on the device. That lets FakeCall control all incoming and outgoing calls: When the victim tries to call a legitimate contact, notably their bank, the fake call app instead routes the call to a fake phone number that belongs to hackers.

FakeCall will show you a fake display during this call, which looks like the real Android call screen, as well as the phone number you were trying to call. You might be convinced, and will hand over the personal information you’d normally only share with your bank, but, unfortunately, the hackers will take it instead.

In addition, FakeCall will capture text messages, contacts, locations, and apps on your phone, and will take photos, record video from all cameras, add and delete your contacts, save audio from your phone’s mic, and upload photos.

It’s important to reiterate, if you have an Android device, to avoid downloading apps outside the Google Play Store, unless you can verify the legitimacy of that program. Take careful note of the permissions your apps ask of you, especially where it concerns accessibility permissions: Malicious apps often abuse these in order to take control of your phone.