Chinese cybercriminals are increasingly targeting mobile users via a vast underground network of tools and services, according to a new report.
Security firm Trend Micro outlines the popular methods used by Chinese gangs to make money from the mobile web.
It details how cheap some mobile malware kits can be – from as little as 100 yuan (£9.70).
Such underground forums are thriving worldwide, particularly in Russia, China and Brazil.
The Mobile Cybercriminal Underground Market report outlines some of the key businesses operating in this vast and sophisticated network.
Spam devices
It includes the selling of premium-rate phone numbers, which can be bought from 220,000 yuan (£21,400).
Such numbers are used in conjunction with malicious apps that reply to text messages and then delete confirmation messages so users end up paying vast sums to cybercriminals without realising.
Spam is big business in a country where 81% of Chinese internet users went online using their mobile phone in 2013.
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