Banking malware tells user to ‘refund’ money

Web injection used to suggest accidental transfer.

In a new twist to banking trojans, a piece of malware found on German computers tricks victims into believing a large amount has accidentally been transferred to their account and asks them to refund the money.

Banking malware has become very sophisticated in recent years and several instances of it

co-operate

with malware running on a mobile device in order to defeat two-factor authentication. The use of web injects to modify users’ account statuses, to hide malicious activity and thus avoid detection, is not uncommon either.

The German Federal Police now warns of malware that uses this latter technique to trick the customer into believing that a credit has been made to their bank account by mistake and that the account has been frozen until the payment is transferred back. Because the transfer is made ‘voluntarily’, there is no need for the malware to defeat advanced authentication, as the user takes care of this.

This particular attack currently does not appear to be very widespread. However, users should be aware of this scam and, in general, any suspicious activity on their account should be reported to their bank.

More at Brian Krebs’s security blog

here

.

Posted on 03 August 2011 by

Virus Bulletin