Spanish police have seized servers and arrested the operators of an Android app designed to broadcast pirate video streams, but which also secretly sold users’ personal data and ensnared smartphones into proxy and DDoS botnets.
Named Mobdro, the app was downloaded more than 100 million times, according to Spanish National Police.
Although on its official websites, the app used benign descriptions, once installed, it allowed users to access and view pirated video streams, usually for online sporting events.
Spanish officials said they began an investigation into the app in 2018 after receiving complaints from the English Premier League, the Spanish Football League, and other creative associations.
Starting last month, investigators began cracking down on the app’s authors, with the help of Europol, Interpol, Eurojust, and authorities in Andorra.
These efforts targeted the operation’s leader, a former Spanish citizen relocated to Andorra, and three engineers, and included the following:
Three house searches (2 in Spain and 1 in Andorra)
Four arrests (3 in Spain and 1 in Andorra)
Four court orders to take down domains
20 web domains and servers blocked
Bank accounts frozen
One server was taken down in Portugal, and another one under investigation in Czechia
Investigators said the Spanish company behind the app and server infrastructure made more than €5 million, based on seized documents.
The profits primarily came from showing ads inside the app and selling users’ personal data to online advertisers.
But Spanish authorities said that “with the progress of the investigation,” their agents also identified another source of revenue that consisted of enrolling user devices into another company’s network.
According to Spanish and Europol officials, this unnamed company used the devices as proxy bots in its anonymization offering and for DDoS attacks.
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