Until now we knew that ransomware attacks computers, but as it seems, scammers are slowly beginning to infiltrate mobile devices as well. An adult app for Android (displays pornographic material) secretly captures selfies of the user and blackmails them with the indecent photos.
The ‘Adult Player’ app for Android works like an app that was designed to allow users to view pornographic material. However, when installed it also gains access to the camera.
The app then secretly takes photos of the user and demands a ransom while the phone remains locked. The app threatens the user with exposing the images and information it collected, as well as deleting all data on the device. The ransom demanded by the scammers to prevent their threats from being carried out is $500, according to security firm Zscaler.
The ‘Adult Player’ app has been encoded so that even after a reboot, the device remains locked. An alternative solution that the victim has is to start the device in safe mode.
Booting into safe mode varies depending on your device. Safe mode starts the device with the default settings, without running third-party apps.
If you had downloaded the app and it locked your device, follow these steps:
To uninstall the ransomware from your device, you will first need to remove the administrator privileges it has acquired. To do this, go to Settings – Security – Application manager and select the ransomware app to disable it.
Once this is done, you can go to Settings – Applications – Uninstall ransomware app.
Let's hope your indecent photos won't appear anywhere on the internet.
