Grindr, the phone application that allows gay men to locate other gay men nearby, has been hit with a malicious attack that autodials a premium rate phone number when horny men fire up the app. Users have claimed to have been stung for £1 a second after a virus that appears to have been hidden in the pop-up advertising force dialled a premium rate number from their phone. It’s not unusual for sex themed websites to be targeted by virus packed adverts, but it’s less common in major phone apps which tend to avoid bombarding users with pop-ups. Grindr however doesn’t have an aversion to annoying users with invasive advertising – a policy which, combined with the iPhone allowing autodialling without user authorisation, has left its users out of pocket.

While Grindr say they are addressing the issue, the premium number attack has reportedly been active for over a month. It’s quite probable that Grindr, which has 5 million users, was specifically targeted because of the embarrassment many of those users might feel when chasing up the issue with their phone provider. A severe dose of iClap…

H/T: El Reg