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The Fail is Strong with This One: Angry Birds Star Wars Android SMS Sender

28
Nov
2012

Back in April, fake copies of Angry Birds Space were in circulation – with the recent release of Angry Birds Star Wars, scammers have caused a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of phones cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced (just put it on vibrate, it’s easier).

Fake apps are once again the order of the day – here’s one our Labs have found and taken a look at, offered up for download from a dedicated website over at

angrybirdsstarwars-android(dot)ru

Click to Enlarge

As with so many similar fakeouts, Android owners must download the app from the website then install it on their phone (downloading with anything other than your mobile device – say, a web browser – offers up a .jar file instead). It’s almost like leaving the “Allow installation of non-Market applications” option on your Android unchecked is a good idea!

This one acts like a typical Boxer Android file, sending premium SMS messages before downloading a valid version of the software. All in all, a rather costly mistake given you could pay the one time fee for the legitimate Google Play download and whip yourself into a (non-scammed) frenzy of Birds being Angry instead. VirusTotal results can be found here, and we detect this as Trojan.AndroidOS.Generic.A with VIPRE Mobile.

End-users should always be cautious of websites offering up Android files that aren’t the Google Play store, especially when based around a hot new property or must-have game. More often than not, the only gold medal handed out at the end of the movie will be the one going to Extreme Money Loss Champion 2012 and you don’t need to be a big walking carpet to see that isn’t a great way to end a trilogy (unless you’re talking about the prequels, in which case the only way to be sure is nuking it from orbit).

Christopher Boyd (Thanks to Randall for finding this)

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