In a recent investigation, the malware defense company F-Secure has identified three Chinese companies being behind the “Sexy Space” trojan. The virus can seriously affect the users by offering them huge phone bills.

According to Poket-lint, the virus got through the Symbian Foundation’s digital signing process and the virus spreads itself by text message. The same publication also informs that in order for applications to work on S60 handsets, they have to pass the Symbian Foundation’s automatic checks, and some are selected for human checking. In the case of the Sexy Space virus, it was not.

The virus sends a link via text message which would download the worm. Once download, the virus is activated and will send similar text messages to all your contracts, thus probably creating a huge bill as each SMS is costing you whatever your message fee is per contract.

The malware defense company F-Secure is blaming the virus on XiaMen Jinlonghuatian Technology, ShenZhen ChenGuangWuXian Technology and XinZhongLi Tian Jin for its creation. All Symbian S60 phones are potential targets.

It must be mentioned that F-Secure sells antivirus software for Symbian devices. If you have problems you can purchase it from them. However, keep in mind, as Duncan Geere of Pocket-lint puts it “it’s in the company’s interest to spread information about phone viruses.”