An application for Apple (AAPL) and Google’s (GOOG) mobile operating systems uploaded users’ contacts list for the purposes of text messaging spam, leading both companies to remove the software from their mobile offerings Thursday.

The app, called “Find and Call,” was passed off as a mobile phone book application, but users who downloaded and used the app had all of their contacts uploaded to a remote server. Once the app uploaded the user’s address book, it sent text messages to all of the contacts that appeared to be from the infected phone’s number, with a link to download the app.

Kaspersky Lab security blogger Denis Maslennikov, who originally revealed the malicious nature of “Find and Call” in a Thursday blog post, traced the app’s creation to a website for a Singapore-based company, which seeks even more information about visitors, including PayPal information.

This type of malicious software, called a “Trojan,” has appeared in Android’s Google Play store before, Maslennikov reported, but “it’s the first case that we’ve seen malware in the Apple App Store,” he wrote. Apple and Google were notified of the app’s true nature by Kaspersky, and the apps were removed by Thursday afternoon, after remaining available through the morning.

In the Google Play store, the app had more than 100 downloads and three 1-star ratings, while advertising “Free calls from your mobile phone to domains, email, Skype, social networks. Forget about numbers!!!” In Apple’s App Store, the app received 1.5 stars.

A spokeswoman for Cupertino-based Apple verified that the app was taken down for violating the company’s rules.

“The Find & Call app has been removed from the App Store due to its unauthorized use of users’ address book data, a violation of App Store guidelines,” spokeswoman Trudy Muller said.

Mountain View-based Google does not comment on specific apps.

The app adds to problems for Apple’s popular App Store after users receiving updates for apps in the past two days suffered from the apps crashing immediately after launch. The problem, first noted by Instapaper creator Marco Ament after his updated app began crashing, can now be solved by deleting the app and doing a fresh reinstall. Apple has yet to issue any statement about a cause for the corrupt files, which affected a number of apps, Ament reported.

Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/mercbizbreak.