Themed attacks, or attacking people based on their gender, activity or even festivities is nothing new.  Men are the predominant targets of malware as they are more likely to click on links for free games, free music, free movies, and of course explicit content like pornography or nude photos of celebrities.  But times have changed, and malware authors are getting smarter.  They know now that there’s a larger tank chock full of gullible people.

If you’re a single lady looking for a rich prince charming, you could fall victim to a new scam that infects your mobile device with malware.

Last week, Symantec published a warning on their site about a new malware found wreaking havoc on mobile devices owned by women, specifically those looking for a wealthy partner.  Symantec discovered  Android.Loozfon, a rare form of malware that has a specific target – females with Android devices.

“A group of scammers is attempting to lure female Android users in Japan into downloading an app by sending emails stating how the recipient can easily make some money,” Symantec stated on their blog. “The email includes a link to a site that appears to be designed to assist women to make money simply by sending emails. When a certain link on the site is clicked, Android.Loozfon is downloaded onto the device. Other links direct the user to a dating service site that likely attempts to charge money to use the service, which supposedly helps women meet rich men.”

If this doesn’t work, the malware author sends spam stating that they would help introduce her to wealthy men.  The spam also contains a link for those interested, and when clicked, the malware is automatically downloaded on their device.

Loolzfon steals data from the compromised device such as contact details stored on the device as well as the phone number of the device.  The point of which is, the more contact numbers and e-mail addresses the criminals acquire, the more people they can infect.  The data acquired can also be sold to other spammers.

As always, Symantec implores you to be vigilant in installing apps and clicking on links.  Be smart when using the internet to keep your self and other safe and free from malware.

But malware authors aren’t the only ones getting creative, scammers are too.  Recently, a Ramadan themed scam was discovered.  The scammers send out spam with the subject “Happy Ramadan!”  Now, if you’re a Muslim, you’d be curious as to who would send you that greeting only to be met with an e-mail saying you’ve been chosen as the lucky recipient of millions of dollars, or someone asking you to manage their million dollar fund and will be willing to pay you anything, you just have to send your personal information as well as your bank information.  If you’re that gullible and you give them what they ask, you probably already got scammed.

So again, we cannot repeat this enough, keep your personal information safe and don’t go offering it to strangers, no matter how enticing they may be.