iPhone kids' app reportedly hosted crypto-casino
iPhone kids' app reportedly hosted crypto-casino
A kids' game called Jungle Run, which masqueraded equally a "fun running game", may have been a front for an illicit cryptocurrency-funded casino designed to scam its users out of their difficult-earned coin.
That's according to security researcher Kosta Eleftheriou, who stumbled upon the scam that hoodwinked the Apple App Store's security filters and was cynically targeted towards children aged as young as four.
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Jungle Run, which has at present disappeared from the App Store, looks innocent plenty unless you access the game using a Turkish, Italian or Kazakh IP address.
Instead of being greeted by an innocuous monkey marauding through the jungle, the game launches into an online casino. The casino is completely separate from the original Jungle Run game and is plain non meant for children.
This @AppStore app pretends to be a empty-headed platformer game for children 4+, but if I set my VPN to Turkey and relaunch it becomes an online casino that doesn't even utilise Apple'southward IAP.🤯 flick.twitter.com/crnOOF0pNiApril 15, 2021
This is no Goodfellas-inspired illicit gambling den, lacking any morsel of wiseguy movie amuse. Instead the spider web-based casiono asks you to fund your online wallet with cryptocurrencies, said Eleftheriou.
There'due south even an option for cold hard cash, because these scammers aren't too fussy when information technology comes to taking your money. It'south certainly an inventive method to bypass Apple's stringent security checks, but it'southward past no means novel in its approach.
Gizmodo reporter John Biggs, who before reported this story, confirmed that Jungle Run did indeed turn into a gambling app when he changed his geographic location using a VPN.
Security website Threatpost cites Chris Morales, CISO at Netenrich, who discussed the scammers' tactics in an email to them.
Morales said this was a instance of "elementary creative human being intelligence chirapsia car learning. This is the same reason phishing all the same works and social engineering is the number one technique for attacks, non advanced malware."
iOS App aimed at kids steals greenbacks and crypto
Morales acknowledges that Jungle Run has attracted swathes of complaints from users who were tricked by the interface, but this app is merely the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Eleftheriou told Threatpost that he gets a "steady period of tips through an email accost he's set to get leads."
This sort of social engineering is something Eleftheriou wishes to tackle caput-on, stopping nefarious users cashing in off these exploits. He also hopes it volition deter Apple from "misleading users and developers" with claims that the App Store is a safe haven to download and produce apps without the threat of these kinds of scams.
Eleftheriou has a pending lawsuit confronting Apple accusing it of "fraudulent and unfair practices" and permitting dodgy iPhone apps to crowd out legitimate developers.
A cautious arroyo to apps
Anyone who ended up depositing money into Jungle Run may take been quickly scammed out of deposits and payouts, Eleftheriou said, judging by user comments posted on the app's App Store page, which has since been taken downward.
If so, they would have joined many other victims who've fallen prey to scam apps hitting the Apple tree App Store.
The fact the swindlers were happy to have cash payments aslope more privacy-focused cryptocurrency shows the nerve with which they operate.
The ease with which the scammers got through Apple's defenses speaks to the threat that can lurk within seemingly innocent apps, as well equally the wider rot coursing through the Apple App Store. That includes then-called fleeceware apps that have overrun iOS and Android app markets.
Make sure to exist cautious of all apps, unless explicitly well-known. Ultimately, any apps from unknown developers shouldn't be downloaded, peculiarly not until in that location are more rigorous safeguards that can stop these exploits. That halcyon identify, however, seems a while away for at present.
More than: All-time iOS apps
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/iphone-kids-app-reportedly-hosted-crypto-casino
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