fraud protection

A newly identified Android malware family, Qwizzserial, has emerged as a significant threat in Uzbekistan, disguising itself as legitimate financial and government applications. It spreads primarily through Telegram, using deceptive channels to impersonate authorities and financial institutions, luring victims with offers of financial assistance. Upon installation, Qwizzserial requests permissions related to SMS and phone state, prompting users to input sensitive information such as phone numbers and bank card details, which it exfiltrates via the Telegram Bot API or HTTP POST requests. The malware intercepts incoming SMS messages, including one-time passwords (OTPs) for two-factor authentication, and can extract financial information from messages. Analysts from Group-IB have tracked around 100,000 infections linked to Qwizzserial, with confirmed financial losses exceeding ,000,000 within three months. The malware's infection pattern follows a Pareto distribution, with a small subset of samples causing the majority of infections, particularly those impersonating financial institutions. Security solutions have developed detection rules for Qwizzserial, and organizations are encouraged to implement user education and monitoring to mitigate risks. End-users are advised against installing applications from untrusted sources and to scrutinize app permissions. Indicators of Compromise (IOC) include specific C2 domains and file hashes for both example and latest samples of Qwizzserial.