Beware of This New WhatsApp-Call Scam!
According to a recent report by Gizchina, citing cybersecurity firm CloudSEK, a new scam currently targeting random WhatsApp users lets an attacker completely take control of their WhatsApp account with only a phone call. Once an attacker takes hold of a WhatsApp account, they can demand money from the user’s WhatsApp contacts.
The new scam was recently discovered by Rahul Sasi, who is the founder and CEO of CloudSEK. According to him, the primary objective of the hacker is to randomly call an unsuspecting WhatsApp user and try to convince them to call a specific number. If a user, unfortunately, dials the number as instructed by the attacker, they will be logged out of their WhatsApp account and the hacker will be able to take control of it.
“Once the hacker gains access to the account, he demands money from the victim’s contacts. In this way, the hacker scams the victim’s WhatsApp contacts even before the latter realizes that he has lost control of his account. As service providers around the world, use numbers beginning with ’67’ or ‘405’; victims tend to make the call without hesitation,” Sasi explained.
Now, this is not the only WhatsApp scam that has been discovered. Last year, we saw multiple WhatsApp threats and scams, including one that let an attacker take control of a user device remotely, on the platform. So, the existence of the new scam is not very surprising.
As for how to prevent this scam, there is currently no other way than to avoid unknown WhatsApp calls. As a user, you should also always be aware of these scams and let other users in your fraternity know about them. So, we suggest you share this news with your peers and family to let them know about the new WhatsApp scam and warn them to not entertain unknown calls.
