14 DAY TRIAL // Four individuals have been arrested by Vietnamese police on suspicion of stealing close to $100,000 (€72,000) after installing mobile malware on the smartphones of more than 100,000 users.
According to Tuoi Tre News, the suspects are Ha Xuan Tien, aged 23, Nguyen Van Tu, 25, Nguyen Duc Luc, 24, and Tran Ngoc Hai, 29. Three of them work for a company called Soloha Investment, Construction and Trade Co., while the fourth suspect is the administrator of a website called adrocket.vn.
The suspects are said to have used websites like soundfest.com.vn and clickdi.com to distribute malicious mobile applications.
Once installed on smartphones, the apps sent out SMS messages to premium rate numbers. For each message that was sent, the device’s owner was charged with 15,000 Vietnam Dong ($0.70 / €0.51).
The cybercriminals managed to earn VND 2.1 billion ($99,600 / €71,400) since late 2013 until the time of their arrest.
SMS Trojans are not uncommon. Security experts say that this type of malware can help cybercriminals make a lot of money. However, this is the first scheme of this kind uncovered so far by authorities in Vietnam.
The four men have been charged with using computer and telecommunications networks, the Internet or digital devices to appropriate property.