Whatsapp is a platform which enables its users to interact by sending and receiving messages instantly. People can chat with each other irrespective of the location that they reside at. With WhatsApp, the user can send text, voice messages, videos, images, songs, etc. However, a person may need a standard cell phone number to sign into a WhatsApp account. Whatsapp can also be accessed on a computer system.
With Whatsapp’s rising usage, there is also a rise in the Whatsapp scams that are taking place daily, and it has been trapping many innocent WhatsApp users in its trap. Hence, Whatsapp users should be aware of them and should take additional care of their WhatsApp accounts, shielding them from scammers. Whatsapp scammers may use any strategy to hack the user’s account and may further use the hacked account for illegal purposes.
Features:
There are many exciting features facilitated by Whatsapp, and some of the prominent ones are mentioned below:
● Disabling Last Seen:
In WhatsApp, there is a “Last Seen” feature. Using that feature, a WhatsApp user can know the date and time when the other person had last seen or utilized their WhatsApp account. But then WhatsApp has options for a WhatsApp user to set the “last seen” feature in their WhatsApp accounts as per their preferences. For example, it has options such as Nobody, Everyone, my contacts, and my contacts except. If WhatsApp marketing sets the “last seen” feature to “nobody,” then no one can see the details of when the WhatsApp user was last seen online.
● Sharing your location:
In WhatsApp, there is a facility for sharing your live location with someone else. If you want to share your present location with a particular person, you must first open a chat window with that contact, and you can do so by clicking on that contact from your list of contacts. Then you must click on the attachment icon. And there appears a location icon. Click on the location icon, and you will see options to share your live location with that particular person.
● Changing the wallpaper of your chat:
You can even change the wallpaper for your Whatsapp chats. To complete this step, you can go first to Whatsapp settings. Then click on the Chats option. After that, you can tap and choose a new wallpaper option. After choosing the wallpaper of your choice, you can tap the set option.
Now that we’ve gone through some of the top Whatsapp features, let us also take a look at the threats that Whatsapp brings in the form of scams.
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Types of WhatsApp scams:
There are many kinds of WhatsApp scams mentioned below that the users must be aware of.
1. The “Loved one in need” fraud:
In this scam, the WhatsApp scammers pretend to be someone you know and ask for money. They come up with reasons such as them being in jail and needing money for bail, wanting to take a flight home from abroad, and needing money for their ticket, their family member being sick and them needing money for their treatment, etc.
For example, A gets a message on WhatsApp from his friend saying he works abroad and wants to travel back to his home country. However, this friend is in need of money as he needs to purchase a flight ticket. Then he starts requesting A for some money. Believing that his story is real, A agrees. Then this friend requests A to transfer cash through a wired transfer or funds transfer method. A does as instructed by his friend. After a few days, A realizes that he has lost his money. Then it clicked to him that the person who had pretended to be his friend was actually a scammer.
● Whatsapp verification fraud:
In the WhatsApp verification fraud, a six-digit code is provided to a WhatsApp user, which is sent out when a Whatsapp user sets up their Whatsapp account on a new device. Therefore, if a user gets a WhatsApp message and a six-digit WhatsApp code, then it is a WhatsApp verification fraud. In this fraud, the scammer obtains the verification code and logs into the target’s Whatsapp, later using it for unlawful purposes.
● Whatsapp-gold fraud:
In WhatsApp-gold scams, you might see a message specifying an offer that suggests upgrading to a better version of WhatsApp, I.e, Whatsapp Gold, which is made for celebrities and accounts with a prestigious profile. These cheaters may also send a message notifying you about your phone’s upgrade. However, it is advisable that you not click on any of the links sent to you in these messages. Otherwise, your Whatsapp could be entirely accessed by an unauthorized party. In reality, there is no such WhatsApp Gold version.
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● Coupon frauds:
In the case of coupons offered by shopping centres, people do go crazy. Coupons and special offers at shopping places are ubiquitous. But when it comes to the random links that people receive on Whatsapp, they must think about a million times before clicking on them. The link sent for a coupon can be a fraud link or can also lead to a phishing site which could land people in dangerous situations.
● Free flights fraud:
Another common scam is the free flight scam. You may get a message from airways offering 6,000 free flights to your desired destination with a link to book the tickets. But in reality, that link leads you to a fake website that may steal all your data.
For example, let us say that B got a message from Indigo airlines on WhatsApp saying that there are 9000 flights to the USA, Canada, and Australia, and a link is provided to book the flight tickets. Then when B clicks on the link, it leads to a fake website that hacks the information in B’s phone.
Steps to get complete protection from WhatsApp scams:
There are several steps you can take to protect yourself from WhatsApp scams, and some of the steps are mentioned below:
1. Often, the fraudulent messages fail to include correct grammar and spellings. Remember to check these mistakes in the WhatsApp messages received from strangers. This step makes it easy to determine that it’s a scam.
2. You may come across a message demanding you to act urgently or within a specific time limit, and suggesting that if you do not pay within the stipulated time then you may have to pay the penalty. It is an obvious warning sign of fraud.
3. Remember to activate a two-step verification to provide extra security to your Whatsapp account.
4. If you get a supposed Whatsapp-message from a friend demanding money with some lame excuses, remember that it is not your real friend but a hacked account. Do not give your money to any Whatsapp contacts without verifying on some other platform. This will save you from the risk of getting robbed on Whatsapp.
5. When you get a message from a person mentioning that they have some of your personal data and if they blackmail you saying that they will release them unless you pay them, then it is just a strategy used by the scammers to defraud you.
Conclusion:
People who use WhatsApp should be careful about WhatsApp spam messages and should educate themselves about the strategies used by WhatsApp scammers to scam people. In addition, people have to protect their own WhatsApp accounts to avoid becoming victims of WhatsApp scams.