![]() Oh, and that might include your banking credentials!Īnother easy way to steal your info is by sending fake DHL or UPS texts requesting you to take a survey to confirm your delivery details (and maybe pay some missing fee). So it may not seem strange if you’re contacted, for example, by your bank alerting you of a “scam affecting customers” and requesting immediate action: fill out a form to prove that your personal data is correct. Some legitimate services do offer customer support through WhatsApp. While it might seem less troubling than losing money right away, it might actually be much worse in the long run. Instead of a money transfer, you might also be deceived into handing over your personal information. Here's what to look out for □ /Rt1Jfa8SYaģ. Surveys, packages and lotteries – they’re all fake If you receive a WhatsApp from an unknown number with someone claiming to be a family member, be very careful! ⚠️ Scam Alert: 'Hi Mum, my phone isn't working, please can you phone and text me on this number'. So let them know this is happening and don’t be shy about it. Other people around you, including other family members, might be victims of the same scammer. Before you know it, you’ve transferred an amount of money you will never see again. The impostor will go the extra mile on this scam, happily taking time to build trust and use general answers that pretty much fit anyone. “Hi mom, this is my new number,” it starts. If you are a parent, you may not question a message from your kid asking you for a money transfer to pay some urgent bill – even if the message is coming from an unknown number. Apparently, it was sent to you by mistake. The story is weird, but it seems urgent – they really need that code you received earlier. You ignore it, but then a second “beep beep” calls your attention to an incoming WhatsApp message from one of your contacts. Your phone “beeps”: you’ve just received a text message with an unsolicited authentication code that claims to be from Microsoft, Google, or even WhatsApp. Let’s now review a few fraudulent schemes that prey on WhatsApp users. And too often, they do succeed: authorities all over the world have received reports of fraud on the order of millions of dollars. Typically, they’ll use their strategies against a number of people, hoping to lure some of them. The fraudsters aren’t often looking for specific users – it is mostly a case of trial and error. To put it bluntly, all WhatsApp users are at risk of being scammed. What’s worse, taking control of just one account might have an unexpected snowball effect. For a few thousand dollars, scammers can access information about endless numbers of actual, active WhatsApp users. Indeed, in December 2022, it was revealed that a database with over 500 million WhatsApp accounts had been posted for sale on the dark web. And because anyone who knows your phone number can send you a message on WhatsApp, it is also easy for scammers to reach their targets. The app is used by so many people of different ages and backgrounds and in such diverse contexts that staying alert for dangers becomes increasingly important. To make things more complicated, fraudsters aren’t known for resting on their laurels – instead, they’re learning new and sophisticated social engineering skills to entrap us in their trickery. With more than two billion users, WhatsApp offers a vast pool of potential targets for scammers. Here’s a roundup of some of the most common tricks that fraudsters use to dupe their victims on WhatsApp – and what you can do to protect yourself against them.
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