The cell phones that we carry in our pockets can also catch viruses. Although this seems more typical of computers, there are already a multitude of applications that, posing as more popular ones, illegally sneak onto your phone to obtain private information.
The cybersecurity platform Check Point Research (CPR) has come up with a new type of mobile virus that, using applications that impersonate Netflix, gain illicit access to your WhatsApp and can go from keeping information about you and your contacts to blocking you access to the messaging app.
Part of the seriousness of these viruses is that the applications have managed to penetrate the security barriers of the Google Play Store, so if you are not very attentive, you may install them thinking that they are safe and end up with the phone totally infected .
The main application that has made use of this vulnerability is called FlixOnline and it has already been deleted from the Google app store, but if you have already downloaded it, nothing prevents it from continuing to act, hence the importance of identifying it, deleting it and ensuring that your phone is not riddled with viruses.
This scam using Netflix as a claim has worked especially well, according to experts; And it seems that the cause is that because of the pandemic and that we cannot get out of the house enough, more and more people are turning to video platforms to hang out in quarantine.
If you install this application, it quickly asks you for access to a multitude of resources on your mobile. If you allow it, your WhatsApp is quickly at their mercy and your contacts may quickly start telling you that you are sending them spam and fraudulent messages. These messages try to entice other users by offering a fake two-month free Netflix offer.
The best way to ensure that we do not install fraudulent applications is to verify well who are the distributors and responsible for the applications before downloading them from both the Google and Apple stores.
