NEW YORK—Consumers who bank by phone should be careful. Malicious mobile-banking software aimed at taking over consumer bank accounts has threatened up to 10% of consumer cell phones, security experts are warning.
Worse, the software is so sophisticated that it can easily trick even savvy consumers into divulging their banking credentials to the crooks, Moneywatch reported.
"When it is installed on a device, it will display overlays that are legitimate-looking screens that prompt you to log into your bank account," Michael Flossman, head of threat intelligence at Lookout, told Moneywatch. "And the software knows to wait to serve that screen until you are trying to legitimately contact your bank."
Lookout analyzed 30,000 mobile devices with one or more major banking apps installed. The mobile threat histories of these devices during the one-year study period showed that 10% of mobile banking customers encountered a threat or risk, Flossman said.
Avast, another mobile security firm, said about 6$ of the Android phones it protects have been threatened by malware. Only 2.6% of that total was bots that aim to steal customer bank accounts. However, this type of malware is growing rapidly, with 50% percent more threats detected in 2017 than in the previous year, Moneywatch reported.