Apple, Google remove Trojan spamming app from stores

Apple and Google removed an app from their app stores after it was revealed to be harvesting users' phone contacts as spam targets.

The Find and Call app was originally thought to be an SMS worm but later discovered to be a Trojan, according to Kaspersky Lab. The Russian software security firm said it alerted by Apple and Google to the presence of the malware in their stores, apparently leading to the app's removal.

The app required users to register their e-mail address and phone number and then would offer to find friends from users' phone book. The phone book data would then be captured and transmitted to a remote server, Kaspersky said. The malware would then spam the user's contacts with text messages that appeared to come from the original user and including links to download the malware.