Fraudulent Scholarship Apps Target Students in “Defarud” Scam Campaign

Fraudulent scholarship apps have been linked to an Android malware campaign called SikkahBot, active since July 2024 and targeting Bangladeshi students. Disguised as applications from the Bangladesh Education Board, it uses shortened links such as hxxps://bit[.]ly/Sikkahbord, hxxps://bit[.]ly/Education-2025, and hxxps://appsloads[.]top/govt.apk to direct victims to malicious APK downloads, where users are urged to log in with Google or Facebook and to disclose personal and payment details.

Once installed, SikkahBot seeks high‑risk permissions through an Accessibility Service, SMS access, call management, and overlays, enabling broad device control and SMS interception to monitor bank messages related to bKash, Nagad and Dutch-Bangla Bank. It then automates banking transactions, including injecting PINs into login fields and executing USSD transactions, even offline, by fetching codes from a Firebase server.

According to CRIL, the campaign masquerades as official scholarship portals, with victims told a representative will contact them, while the malware activates its capabilities instead.