Japanese porn sites may infect your iPhone and iPad with malicious apps
If you are an adult that likes to visit Japanese porno websites on your iPhone or iPad, I will not judge you. It is your life and you can do with it what you want. Quite frankly, watching x-rated videos is safer than visiting sex workers, as you cannot catch a virus from your Apple device.
Or can you? While not a virus per se, Symantec has discovered a malicious app in the wild that is targeting iOS users that search for Japanese sex videos and visit certain spam links. Unfortunately, wearing a condom on your finger will not protect you -- here is how to stay safe.
"This is the first time we've seen a malicious iOS app being used for one-click fraud purposes. The scammers are likely taking advantage of the iOS Developer Enterprise Program for their campaign, though we have not confirmed this. If the app is installed on the user's device, then it tells the user that they have agreed to become a member of the site and demands that they pay 99,000 Japanese yen (approximately US$800) now or 300,000 yen (approximately $2,400) after three days", explains Joji Hamada, Symantec.
Hamada further explains, "in this campaign, the user may arrive at the scammers' fraudulent site either by clicking on a link in a spam message or by stumbling across the site during an online search for adult videos. If the user clicks on the play button on the site, then they are presented with a pop-up message asking the user to install an app. The user can install the app on their iOS device, even if they haven’t jailbroken it".
Wow, this can impact users that aren't even jailbroken? Scary stuff indeed. Luckily, the app itself is not harmful -- Symantec assures everyone that it will not cause any damage or steal information. The malicious nature of the app is just the user believing the request for money and willingly paying it. Simply uninstalling the app will cure the woes.
To avoid such nonsense, never install an app unless it is from Apple's App Store. As you can see in the above image, you have to explicitly tap that you trust the bad app before it will be installed. As long as you remember to always tap "Don't Trust", you will be golden.
Have you encountered any sites that have prompted the install of untrusted apps? Tell me in the comments.
Photo Credit: T.Dallas/Shutterstock