Mobile scams 'costing users five times more than PC scams', security firm warns

As the number of people using the mobile internet continues to rise rapidly, criminals are exploiting new technologies with increasing efficiency, the latest research suggests.

With smartphones predicted to outsell PCs in 2011, the survey, commissioned by mobile security firm AdaptiveMobile, indicates that traditional spam email successfully persuades fewer than one in a million users to visit the site it’s advertising.
 


So-called “conversion rates” of mobile spam are often higher than one per cent, however, and one SMS text message spam attack can generate more than $10 million in just three days.

The types of scam the firm found ranged included sophisticated attacks that exploit smartphone capabilities to connect to the internet – the results included “click fraud” on adverts or mobile viruses. Simpler scams included SMS messages claiming the recipient had won a prize and fooling them into replying via a premium rate call or text.

“With spammers finding ways of avoiding the cost of sending bulk SMS, the traditional barrier to receiving spam on mobiles has been removed,” said Simeon Coney, vice-president of business development at AdaptiveMobile.

“A mobile phone is a very personal device and people are intrinsically more trusting of communications via their handset than content in their email inboxes. While the mobile operators are fighting the criminals at a network level, users too need to play their part if they’re to stay safe in an increasingly mobile world.”