Cleaning app stole nearly €60,000 using accessibility service
A Chinese man lost nearly €60,000 after a cleaning app installed on his Android phone accessed its accessibility service. Police successfully traced and recovered all stolen funds.
Police in China have revealed a case where a man lost nearly €60,000 in a scam that exploited the accessibility service on an Android phone. The man had downloaded a cleaning app from an advertisement, and during installation, he granted the app permission to use the accessibility service.
Scammers utilized this permission to install a remote-controlled Trojan horse on the phone. During the night, they were able to remotely operate the phone and complete multiple fund transfers without requiring passwords or SMS verification. The man's wife noticed the screen lighting up unexpectedly and discovered the theft.
Authorities managed to quickly intercept remaining transactions and recover all the lost funds. This incident is among several new types of scams that the Hubei Provincial Public Security Department has warned about, including those involving travel and cultural refunds, credit fraud, and silent account draining.
The accessibility service is a feature within the Android operating system designed to assist users with disabilities. Once granted to malicious software, it can simulate user actions like taps and swipes, thus bypassing standard security verification mechanisms.