The next time you launch your favourite streaming app to watch a movie or TV show, you could be handing hackers the keys to your bank account.
Fraud detection firm ThreatFabric has sounded the alarm about a new strain of malware called Massiv, which is designed to steal your digital identities and drain your bank accounts by masquerading as legitimate IPTV apps. For those who don’t know, “IPTV” stands for Internet Protocol Television and is often used as shorthand for apps that allow you to stream content for free.
While IPTV itself isn’t illegal, this term is often used by apps designed to offer free streams of copyright-protected material, like those found on so-called “fully loaded” Fire TV Sticks. It’s these illicit services that are being exploited by fraudsters attempting to steal personal information.
That’s what makes this scam so effective.
Many of these apps aren’t available on official platforms like Google Play, so users often turn to unofficial sources to download them to stream content that otherwise may not be available for free. This then creates the perfect opportunity for cybercriminals to take advantage and install malware on their devices.
And this malware is particularly worrisome because it unleashes two different ways to spy on you.
Fraudsters are creating platforms that masquerade as legitimate IPTV apps to steal your financial information
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The first lets criminals watch your screen in real-time, streaming whatever you’re doing.
The second is even sneakier – it pulls structured data from your phone’s Accessibility Service, grabbing visible text, button names, and screen coordinates. Essentially, it lets attackers click buttons and fill in text fields on your behalf, all without you knowing.
Once these hackers have your personal data, they use it to open bank accounts in your name at all different financial institutions. ThreatFabric’s research even found cases where fraudsters set up accounts at entirely new banks and services that victims have never used themselves.
“Since those accounts are fully under fraudster control, they can further use them as a part of a money laundering scheme as well as getting loans and cashing out the money, leaving unsuspecting victim in debts in the bank they never opened an account with themselves,” the researchers at ThreatFabric explained.
This means you could end up owing money to a bank you’ve never dealt with, all because someone stole your identity through a fake streaming app.
It turns out Massiv is part of a growing trend, too. ThreatFabric has noticed that fake IPTV apps have become increasingly popular as malware delivery tools over the past eight months — specifically in Portugal, Spain, France, and Turkey.
Most of the time, these apps don’t actually give you access to free content at all, either. They’re simply disguises that install the real malware payload onto your device.
Fraudsters are using special code to pull structured data from your phone’s Accessibility Service, grabbing visible text, button names, and screen coordinates
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Some appear a bit more sophisticated, too, displaying a legitimate IPTV website like the Amazon Appstore on the third-party platforms.
To best protect yourself, it’s best practice to not sideload any apps onto your Android device unless you’re certain where they come from, such as the Google Play Store.