How to avoid a Trojan phone? Don’t buy a clone!


android trojan

Chinese smartphone manufacturers are under scrutiny at the moment due to the Trojan found in the Star N9500 smartphone. But Chinese phones are safe and the chances of getting a Trojan are unlikely especially if you follow these steps.

If you had missed the news then let my quickly fill you in. A German security firm recently revealed that the popular Star N9500 smartphone had been purposely infected with a Trojan that could not be detected by the end-user and was able to take control of your phone and grab personal details. Obviously, the Chinese phone market is not looking as great to shoppers due to the scandal, but the chances of this happening to you are slim if you shop wisely.

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Although upsetting, we are hardly surprised that a company such as Star, or more likely the factory producing the OEM Star branded phones, have turned out to be less than trustworthy. Star have been one of a large number of Chinese phone makers, who from the start, have made a living producing clones of big brand phones (the Star N9500 Trojan device was a Samsung Galaxy S4 clone).

Over the years we have posted news about clone and knock off devices but we have never once suggested that you buy one, and this Trojan scandal is part of what we were worried about. The big issue is not with the brands promoting or selling the phones, but the lack of control these brands have over the factories. It is highly likely that Star knew nothing about the Trojan, as they just placed orders to have their name stamped on phone boxes.

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How to avoid a Trojan phone?

So, the big issues is how do you avoid a Trojan phone? Well like with anything it just comes down to being a savvy shopper and choosing carefully, but you can also ask yourself this question: “If a company is dishonest enough to make a fake phone, are they trustworthy enough to have access to your Google account, contacts and control of your camera?” The answer should be “No”.

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Although it is fun to read news of fake iPhones, Galaxy S5’s and so on my advice to anyone wanting to get one would be “don’t”. Either save up and buy the real thing or buy a phone from a trusted manufacturer with the specs you want at the price you are happy to pay.

How to find a trusted Chinese phone maker?

Chinese phone makers fall under many categories from global giants, to up and coming start-ups to small companies that just buy in from factories and rebrand phones as their own.It’s this last type of phone maker you should be most wary of especially if they deal in clones, or fake devices.

Companies such as ZTE, Huawei, Oppo, Xiaomi, Vivo, Meizu, etc are all huge corporations and it isn’t in their best interests to infect your phone. Smaller brands like DOOV, OnePlus, Zopo, Jiayu, iOcean, Nubia etc are either owned by one of the larger companies or are huge in their own right in China and again aren’t likely to destabilise themselves with a scandal like this.

The only companies which should really be avoided are the ones like Star. This company had a huge audience internationally but were totally unknown in China. They also tended to fly under the radar rather and never attempted to promote themselves on blogs or with official fan pages. If a manufacturer is doing this there is obviously a reason they don’t want to be noticed. The Star N9500 scandal is a huge blow to the Chinese phone industry, and for the less savvy phone customers around the world it will like mean they won’t by a Chinese phone, but to the more techy customer who understands Chinese phones and the brands, this news will hardly make a difference to us.

What are your thoughts on Chinese phones after this scandal? are you still willing to buy a clone phone knowing the risks?

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24 Comments

  1. martins
    June 20, 2014

    Guys Check your phone with “eset Mobile security“. I’m using a star s7589t with a custom Rom. My system is clear now but I found some of the Trojans (they are all talking about) in the stockrom. They can be found even if you run a custom Rom and backup your other roms with cyanogenmod.

    • Simon
      June 20, 2014

      is eset mobile security free or paid application ?

      In terms of a free app Trustgo is one of the best:

      http://www.trustgo.com/

      • thor2001
        June 20, 2014

        The scan can be done in the free version.

        You should switch to the “Scan Level” to “Deep”.

        Regards

  2. Guest
    June 20, 2014

    Guys Check your phone with “eset Mobile security“. I’m using a star s7589t with a custom Rom. My system is clear now but I found some of the Trojans (they are all talking about) in the stockrom. They can be found even if you run a custom Rom and backup your other roms with cyanogenmod.

    • Guest
      June 20, 2014

      is eset mobile security free or paid application ?

      In terms of a free app Trustgo is one of the best:

      http://www.trustgo.com/

    • Guest
      June 20, 2014

      The scan can be done in the free version.

      You should switch to the “Scan Level” to “Deep”.

      Regards

  3. george
    June 20, 2014

    Think that there is no actual manufacturer called Star.
    It’s a generic name like memory or processor.
    Anyone can use that name.

  4. June 20, 2014

    How about Cubot?

  5. george
    June 20, 2014

    Think that there is no actual manufacturer called Star.
    It’s a generic name like memory or processor.
    Anyone can use that name.

  6. toilettroll
    June 20, 2014

    So how can we detect this spyware..
    Star 9770 owner for 2 years. But will now be getting iOcean G7

  7. Roberto Acuña
    June 20, 2014

    How about Cubot?

  8. Guest
    June 20, 2014

    So how can we detect this spyware..
    Star 9770 owner for 2 years. But will now be getting iOcean G7

  9. billybloggs
    June 21, 2014

    Clones don’t appeal to me, I want a phone that is good in it’s own right, so am not put off by this, “revelation” as there has always been a suspicion of these sort of shenanigans with clones. I would buy another JiaYu, a Xiiomi, Oppo, or I-Ocean without hesitation. I want a good fast dual sim 4G so look forward to what JiaYu, in particular come up with, a 4G G5 with a big battery would be nice.

  10. Bartman
    June 21, 2014

    Oh well even my Jiayu G3C came with a malware infected Google Play Store and the Zopo ZP700 had a malware named Chinese Painting pre-installed. Big brands are no warranty to buy malware free. Lenovo S660 and Kingzone S1 were free of malware.

  11. billybloggs
    June 21, 2014

    Clones don’t appeal to me, I want a phone that is good in it’s own right, so am not put off by this, “revelation” as there has always been a suspicion of these sort of shenanigans with clones. I would buy another JiaYu, a Xiiomi, Oppo, or I-Ocean without hesitation. I want a good fast dual sim 4G so look forward to what JiaYu, in particular come up with, a 4G G5 with a big battery would be nice.

  12. billybloggs
    June 21, 2014

    Clones don’t appeal to me, I want a phone that is good in it’s own right, so am not put off by this, “revelation” as there has always been a suspicion of these sort of shenanigans with clones. I would buy another JiaYu, a Xiiomi, Oppo, or I-Ocean without hesitation. I want a good fast dual sim 4G so look forward to what JiaYu, in particular come up with, a 4G G5 with a big battery would be nice.

  13. Ben Liu
    June 21, 2014

    The situation is as follows – Following Aristotle’s Logic:

    1) “Malware was found on a Chinese phone (Star 9500)” by an obscure IT security company
    2) “Star Phones are made in China”
    3) “Therefore, all Chinese Phones must have Malware on them”

  14. Guest
    June 21, 2014

    Oh well even my Jiayu G3C came with a malware infected Google Play Store and the Zopo ZP700 had a malware named Chinese Painting pre-installed. Big brands are no warranty to buy malware free. Lenovo S660 and Kingzone S1 were free of malware.

  15. Ben Liu
    June 21, 2014

    The situation is as follows – Following Aristotle’s Logic:

    1) “Malware was found on a Chinese phone (Star 9500)” by an obscure IT security company
    2) “Star Phones are made in China”
    3) “Therefore, all Chinese Phones must have Malware on them”

  16. phil
    May 2, 2015

    can i buy ECOO E04??
    is this brand trusted ??
    i really wanna buy e04 but i m concerned about quality of this brand….can i use ecoo for more than 3 years without any problem or not?
    please somebody answer me its really important for me….

  17. phil
    May 2, 2015

    can i buy ECOO E04??
    is this brand trusted ??
    i really wanna buy e04 but i m concerned about quality of this brand….can i use ecoo for more than 3 years without any problem or not?
    please somebody answer me its really important for me….

  18. phil
    May 3, 2015

    somebody please answer me….is ecoo trusted or not???
    it is really important for me but nobody answers………can i trust ecoo e04?

  19. phil
    May 3, 2015

    somebody please answer me….is ecoo trusted or not???
    it is really important for me but nobody answers………can i trust ecoo e04?

  20. greglukats
    April 21, 2018

    Avoid Gretel! I have a Gretel A7, and unwanted app installations, and browser ads are popping up after several days after factory reset…