Security company Kaspersky Lab says hackers have found a way to text money out of users' phones. The problem was discovered in Indonesia, but it could have global implications, according to IDG news service.
Apparently Kaspersky found a Trojan horse that exploits the function that enables mobile phone users to transfer money by text.
The report says the software is a variant of the Trojan-SMS.Python.Flocker malware, written by Russian fraudsters. The new version had been used to sign victims up for mobile services such as ringtones, presumably with the program's authors getting a kickback.
The victim is tricked into downloading the Python.Flocker program onto a Symbian-based mobile phone and amounts between $0.45 and $0.90 are transferred.
Rather bizarrely, the report says Kaspersky Lab doesn't know which Indonesian mobile service provider was attacked.