Beware: This New WhatsApp Scam Hacks User Accounts By Posing As Their Contacts

Whatsapp scam hacks user accounts using their contacts

While social media platforms like Facebook are battling a massive data breach, popular messaging platform WhatsApp is the victim of a notorious scam. Hackers are trying to hold user accounts hostage. What's more, they are using trusted contacts, such as a family member or a friend's accounts, to hack into WhatsApp accounts? And then today, we desire to highlight this new kind of WhatsApp scam so be aware if you witness similar activity on your user account.

New WhatsApp Hacking Scam

Discovered by author and speaker Alexis Conran (tweet), a new WhatsApp scam is currently spreading on the platform, and it hacks user accounts using their contacts. Confused? Well, permit me clear information technology out for you.

How Does It Work?

Hither is how the new WhatsApp scam works. Beginning, you lot will receive an SMS stating a random log-in OTP from WhatsApp. Now, if you did not know, WhatsApp does not use passwords or PINs for user logins. Instead, it sends a One Time Password (OTP) to the users' phone numbers to identify them.

Then, you might think that your account must have logged out somehow and the random WhatsApp code must exist your new login OTP. However, when you open your WhatsApp business relationship, you volition find a new message from a friend or a relative asking for a code.

Now, this is a crucial point as most people, especially the elderly, will send them the code as the message came from a familiar contact. Still, it is not actually your friend or family member who texted yous. It was the hacker who has already taken your contact'southward account hostage. So, once you ship them the code, your business relationship will be hacked too!

This sounds pretty unsafe and people who are uninitiated might fall prey to this very easily. Moreover, by the looks of the specimen SMS (image above) shared past Conran, it seems pretty legit.

How to Preclude this Scam?

Share the word with as many people equally you tin can. If yous fall in a like situation, practice not transport the OTP to your contact right abroad. First, call your contact's phone number and inform them about the scam. Moreover, every bit shortly equally your contact logs dorsum into their WhatsApp account, it will automatically kick out the hacker.

To preclude such hacks in the future, you tin can turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) on WhatsApp. This will require an additional half-dozen-digit Pin to log in to your WhatsApp account on your device. Furthermore, citing the massive Facebook information-leak recently and the falling popularity of WhatsApp due to its controversial privacy policy, you can also delete your WhatsApp account and shift to its alternatives.