A firm that disguised Android malware as Angry Birds games has been fined £50,000 ($78,300) by UK premium-rate service regulator PhonepayPlus.
UK industry regulator PhonepayPlus uncovered that 1,391 mobile phone numbers in the UK had been stung by the scam, that targeted Android owners who downloaded Trojan horse versions of popular games such as "Angry Birds", "Assassins Creed" and "Cut the Rope".
When an innocent user start one of the apps , it would send three premium rate text messages, costing £15. Charges would continue to mount unless users removed the offending app.
It's estimated that there were some 14,000 downloads of the malicious apps around the globe.
A1 Agregator Limited ran the premium rate payment system used by the malware to fraudulently charge consumers' smartphones.
As well as the firm being fined £50,000, it has also been ordered to directly refund all consumers within three months, regardless of whether they complained or not. In addition, the company has been barred from launching any other premium rate services in the UK without the permission of PhonepayPlus.
