Mobile users fall victim as thieves swoop

A growing number of Internet thieves are stealing money from smartphone users, especially male ones, through mobile viruses, according to a report issued on Monday.

Published by the Tencent Research Institute, the report said that out of 16.7 million new phone viruses it detected last year, about 326,000 were viruses that can lead to the theft of key personal information on payment accounts.

Despite the relatively small proportion of the payment-related mobile viruses, 25.05 million phone users became victims of them last year, according to the report titled Internet Black Industry Research.