App store scammers are selling a modified version of Minecraft: Pocket Edition that will hack your phone and send messages to premium-rate numbers.

Unlike many 'free' game rip-offs, the company behind the fake version is still charging users for the game.

The hacked version costs €2.50 rather than the usual €5.40, and is available on several third-party app marketplaces, PC Mag reports.

Compromised copies were discovered to have gained control of users' SMS messaging services, and were merrily messaging premium-rate numbers in Russia.

Whether these phonelines were also owned by the scammers is unknown, but its often the case that scammers will at least get a cut, digital security company F-Secure commented.

Minecraft developer Mojang did include checks within the Android version of its game to prevent tampering with its code, but the "trojanised" version manages to circumvent them.

It's probably best to always install apps from an official source.