- BingoMod is a remote access trojan that uses your phone to set up money transfers.
- The app is spread via text message, and pretends to be security software.
- Once its done stealing from you, its operators remotely wipe your phone.
Getting malware on your smartphone is just a recipe for a bad day, but even within that misery there’s a spectrum of how awful things will be. Some malware may be interested in exploiting its position on your device to send spam texts or mine crypto. But the really dangerous stuff just wants to straight-up steal from you, and the example we’re checking out today has a particularly nasty going-away present for your phone when it’s done.
A remote access trojan (RAT) dubbed BingoMod was first spotted back in May by the researchers at Cleafy (via BleepingComputer). The software is largely spread via SMS-based phishing, where it masquerades as a security tool — one of the icons the app dresses itself up with is that from AVG antivirus. Once on your phone, it requests access to Android Accessibility Services, which it uses to get its hooks in for remotely controlling your device.