Buying a new phone should be fairly easy. While deciding between brands and features and choices can be difficult, there typically is only one brand that matches the product you make your way to.
There is only one maker of the iPhone, and that’s Apple. There’s only one manufacturer of the Galaxy S and Galaxy Z foldables, and that’s Samsung. There’s only one Oppo and Motorola and Honor and Google and so on and so on.
You can find many an Android phone, but each manufacturer is specific and makes its own gear, and you can’t find an iPhone that runs Android. Not one that’s sold, anyway.
Try telling that to scammers.
While no Australian retailer or telco will find their way to less-than-reputable brands hawking fake phones, the concept does actually exist from other outlets, and that seemingly includes Amazon. And if you find your way to an “i17 Pro Max” (which is named startlingly like an iPhone 17 Pro Max) or an “S25 Ultra” (which sounds a lot like last year’s Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra), you may have also found your way to phones masquerading as the real thing, complete with malware inside.
It’s a problem because phones don’t always cost a lot to make, and much of the hardware is common. However, random generic manufacturers can also sell those cheap phones with technology inside meant to run scams and malware, and that’s a problem for the victims.
Being sold a fake phone is bad enough, but having it run dodgy software makes everything worse.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what appears to be happening in some, circumstances, with security specialist Bitdefender noting some of those phones have been sold on Amazon which just so happen to include malware that loads hidden ads. The software isn’t something you would have installed, but rather had it pre-installed before getting it, arriving inside weather, note, and text-scanning apps.
While ads seem minor, Bitdefender’s research also found the apps can run malicious code remotely, meaning scammers and criminals can effectively turn parts of these phones into systems that do more, and you can’t clean the software from the device. Rather, it comes with the phone, meaning it also runs with the phone, as well.
You can’t remove the built-in malware. It’s a feature.
That “more” is also a problem, effectively allowing external individuals to straight up control parts of your phone, turning your device into a botnet and using it to funnel excess traffic to websites. Your phone is in essence a zombie system, and that is a problem.
It’s a risk because it means nothing on the device can be trusted, and a scammer could end up taking over your phone.
Australians haven’t been as directly affected here, either, with most of the hardware making its way to places like Mexico, France, Italy, and even the United States, though given the availability on local shops, Australians may have found their way to these devices. However, the company did say that the phone makers using this malware are making fake iPhones with names like “17ProMax”, while fake tablets carrying the same malware can be seen as “iPadAirPro”. Samsung copies are also there, and may even pretend to use actual Samsung model numbers, muddying the water somewhat, as well.
Bitdefender couldn’t work out where in the supply chain the malware found its way to these phones, but it was able to work out what it did and how it disguised itself, appearing on low-cost Android phones found outside of major brand names, suggesting possibly something to avoid.
It is, in short, a bit of a mess, but it does seem to lend itself to the category of “if it seems too good to be true”, which is typically true, even in tech, and you already know the rest.
