Clones of popular smartphones are all over the Internet and they come with a throwaway prices. But latest security reports suggests that you should stay away from buying these phones.
Security researchers in Germany warns that a Galaxy S4 clone Star N9500 which is available in popular marketplaces like Amazon and Ebay is preloaded with spyware code. The phone has great hardware specs for the price. It comes with a Quad-core processor, 5 inch screen, 1 GB RAM and 12 mega-pixel camera. The malicious code on the phone can retrieve your personal data, camera photos and other sensitive information and send these back to a Chinese server.
“The possibilities with this spy program are almost limitless. Online criminals get full access to the smartphone,” said G Data’s product manager Christian Geschkat on the company’s website.
The spyware comes with a Torjan called Uupay.D. The malicious code also blocks security updates to the phone. This means security updates from Google can not remove this.
Ebay now removed the smartphone from their store saying
“Due to reports that some Star 9500 smartphones are loaded with spyware, eBay is not allowing the sale of these devices as a precautionary measure.”
