By now most everyone knows better than to click or tap links in emails because that’s one of the easiest ways to infect your device with a virus.
After all, once you click a link and visit an infected website, the damage is done.
Well, the same thing is happening on smartphones as well, only the malware is being spread via text messages.
What happens is you receive a text message from a friend telling you about a great new app they just heard about.
In reality, the app is malware, and if you tap on the link in the text message the malicious app is installed on your phone.
Once the app has been installed on your phone, it accesses your Contact List and sends the same malicious text message that you received to all of your contacts (in addition to a ton of other nasty tricks). Not a good thing!
Luckily, there are a couple of easy ways to protect yourself from malicious apps that are spread this way:
1 – Follow the same rule with text messages that you follow for emails: Don’t tap on any links!
2 – Install a high quality anti-malware security app on your Android phone.
I use and recommend the free version of AVG for Android, but there are several other good choices out there as well.
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