The fraudster may entice the recipient with photos they’ve found of a friend on social media or may refer to events that the user has posted about on sites like Facebook. This type of scam usually involves the scammer pretending to be a friend, family member, or acquaintance, contacting a user from an unknown number (although the profile picture may be familiar), and immediately asking for money as a matter of urgency. They message the victim simultaneously, saying the code was sent by accident to obtain the verification code and gain access to the victim’s account. They install WhatsApp on their own device and then contacts the victim stating they are a friend and at the same time requests a verification code for the victim’s account. Hijacking consists of a cybercriminal obtaining the first user’s phone number. Hijacking is a common method of gaining control of an unsuspecting user’s WhatsApp account to commit fraud. The hacker obtains the WhatsApp verification code and takes control of the account. A voicemail is left in the victim’s inbox, and generally, for the hacker, the victim fails to change the default pin used to protect the inbox (usually something like 0000 or 1111). The fraudster knows WhatsApp will call the victim’s phone immediately and calls the victim simultaneously, so the call goes to voicemail. When it comes to WhatsApp sending the code by text, they select an option saying they never received the code prompting verification by phone. Re-frauding contacts is often straightforward for the criminal as they have contact names, profile pictures, and more. A cybercriminal can set up WhatsApp on their own device using stolen account details. When you first install WhatsApp, it verifies the account by sending a text method with a six-digit code. Voicemail hackingĬybercriminals gaining access to a user’s WhatsApp account by breaking into their voicemail box to obtain their verification code is common practice.
Take a look at some of the most common types of scams below.
Several types of WhatsApp scams are circulating, with the list set to grow as scams become more sophisticated. The purpose of this article is to inform you of the real-life WhatsApp scams out there, to help you recognize a scam, and some ways to avoid being tricked by a fraudster. WhatsApp has become a straightforward way of fraudsters distributing scam messages through various means in the hopes that vulnerable users will fall victim to an online scam.Īs a result of the platform becoming so accessible and widely used, WhatsApp cybercrime is rising, costing each victim thousands of dollars on average.
Today, WhatsApp’s 2 billion users send an average of 100 billion messages every day and among those messages lurk scammers waiting to pounce.
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