WhatsApp is one of the popular applications used among every age group nowadays. As the popularity of, any application increases the number of scams also increases. Now there is nothing new if a WhatsApp scam is reported.
Lately, the application was hit by yet another scam. It was back in November when WhatsApp OTP Scam was reported, under this scam you are asked to share a code, and if you will share that code with the contact, your account will be hacked. This hack is difficult to detect as it appears that someone familiar to us has asked for code.
This scam can be elucidated as the user will get an OTP (One Time Password) on the mobile phone via SMS and the SMS will be followed by a WhatsApp message from a person in your contact list. Later the user will be logged out/ blocked from their own WhatsApp account.
Alexis Conran, a British radio jockey, shared the information about this hack from his Twitter handle in a series of tweets. Conran writes, “It starts with a text message that arrives on your phone out of the blue. Immediately after you will get a Whatsapp message from someone in your contacts. And the message reads ‘Hello, sorry I have sent you a six-digit code by mistake. Can you please send it back to me? It’s urgent!”
He further informed that after hacking your WhatsApp account hackers will now try to hack accounts of your contacts.
He shared a tweet that says, “What has happened is that your friend’s Whatsapp account is hacked. Scammers are now trying to hack all their contact and you are one of them. They are trying to set up a new Whatsapp account from your number. Whatsapp acknowledges this and will send you a six-digit authorization number.”
He added that “The scammers now try to get that code from you by pretending to be one of the friends yours. If you will send them the code, your Whatsapp will be hacked.”
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Following the information, he also shared how one can stop this from happening. He tweeted, “Actions to take: Turn on 2-step verification if you haven’t already and secondly contact your friend whose account is hacked… obviously not using Whatsapp, remember the scammer is in control of that… and get them to sign out and turn on 2-step verification. That should shut out the scammers.”