In recent times, if you received this message, "Hey [NAME], I am sending you $200 Amazon Gift Card You can Claim it here", on your phone, if yes, then you have became the victim of one of the single largest messaging-initiated mobile malware, as discovered by AdaptiveMobile.
This malware access all your contacts on the phone and sends a spam message to each of them with the URL that promises an Amazon gift card if you install an APK file hosted on the page.
Thousands of people around the world have installed this malware and been a victim, alone in North America, there is around 4K devices that are infected by this malware. According to VirusTotal, none of the Anti Virus engines detect this malware, but can be easily removed by using standard Android app uninstall utilities.
The shortened URL account of this malicious URL was actually connected to a FB account, which seems to be owned by a real person. It seems that this spam campaign is not new for the owner of the profile. Previous WhatsApp spam can be related to this, as there was a link which redirects users to a scam page, which shows close link between the author of both the spams.
AdaptiveMobile is the mobile security protecting company, that protects all services on both fixed and mobile networks through in-network and cloud solutions.
