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Pirated Android App Shames Freeloaders
MojoKid writes "A pirated version of an Android app is actually a Trojan that shames someone who installs it by sending an SMS message to all his/her contacts telling them of his/her piracy. The original app is called Walk and Text, and costs $2.10 in the Android Market. The app uses the camera on the back of a smartphone to show a user a visual of his upcoming surroundings, which will supposedly prevent the user from running into the street or across a set of train tracks. The pirated version is available from unofficial Android app markets, and once installed redirects the pirate to the legitimate app in the Android Market, while also sending the SMS message to the phone's entire contact list."
...I don't have any friends! I'm so lonely :(
Don't click the link in the summary - it posts a message to Slashdot telling everyone you tried to read the article :(
http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/freeloader
"a person who is supported by or seeks support from another without making an adequate return"
Please tell me how the use of that term was incorrect.
Miss Scarlet: "I hardly think it will enhance your reputation at the U.N. Professor Plum, if it's revealed that you have been implicated not only in adultery with one of your patients, but in her death and the deaths of five other people."
Professor Plum: "You don't know what kind of people they have at the U.N., I might go up in their estimation."
The app uses the camera on the back of a smartphone to show a user a visual of his upcoming surroundings, which will supposedly prevent the user from running into the street or across a set of train tracks.
Constantly show a safe environment. The truck or train would take care of the rest. That would certainly teach them to rely on an app instead of staying vigilant themselves.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Not sure how many people read through the comments on the avast! page, but something definitely smells there.
The CEO of the company that made this app sounds like a weird blend of troll and one of those king-of-nigeria scams.
* He keeps ranting about how he's going to sue avast
* He keeps shouting about how it's all a lie created by avast in order to slander his company
* He repeatedly claims that his calls to avast were blocked, even though the CEO admitted that one of his colleagues spoke to the dev.
* The only contact information for that company is found here, which you can only get to through the avast article.
* avast lists a few other red flags from this company: "checked the registration of www.incorporateapps.com and see some red-flags: semi-anonymous, no email contact, possibly eastern-european but registered in Germany, and registered through Tucows"
But yeah, something here just doesn't feel right.
You can't set traps for people even if the only way they would be harmed by it would be because they themselves are doing something illegal.
This does "harm" the person running the illegitimate app because it may cost them money to send all those messages plus any potential fallout from people thinking they are a software pirate.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
Who is this "they" that you speak of?
The pirated app appears to be created and released by the same company who makes the legitimate app. Of course, that doesn't necessarily mean it was a good thing to do.
Correct. And so far as I'm concerned, they just proved that they are no more deserving of my trust (or my money!) than is the author of any trojan. I understand that they're concerned about copyright infringement, but that doesn't excuse unethical behavior. No more than Sony's CD rootkit was justifiable.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.