Recently during the World Yoga Day, my friend received free link on his #whatsapp number to join free yoga session. When he clicked on the link, he was asked to share the OTP received on his number. A free session asking for OTP raise doubt in his mind. Sensing something suspicious, my friend immediately blocked that number.
Scammers have found this new way to targeting the individual to extract money or do some fraudulent transaction by gaining access to their mobile phone through some phishing link. They make use of the momentum, like in this case the *yoga day. Likewise, they remain most active during certain special occasion, earlier it happened during the JIO mobile services launch in India through which they trap any #whatsapp user. Over the year, hackers have targeting the #whattsapp user resulting a sharp rise in cyber-crimes. Theses fraudster simply steal the identities and then use the same to extort money from the victims.
how to safeguard from WhatsApp Scams?
Always remain alert with our social media account.
Never click any external link received from unknown source. Make sure to check the authenticity of the user.
If you received any request for money from your contact list, then make sure to confirm via personally reaching out to the person, rather than blindly trusting the request source.
Never share any sensitive information like OTP, or banking passwords over the social media accounts.
If you find any message fishy or suspicious, simply either block the number or report back to #whatsapp by clicking on the 3-dots.
As it happened with my friend during yoga day, if he would have shared the OTP, the scammers can easily gain remote access to the #Whatsapp account. With the identities revealed, there are the possibilities that the scammers extract money from friends and family.
Similar kind of instance happened to my nephew too, when he was targeted by one such hacker. My Nephew installed an app from play store, and as soon he allowed access to his mobile, he started getting message from the scammers. My nephew immediately put up a notice on his various social media account about the possible threat and to avoid any unnecessary request from his number.
This is also a smart way to alert every other user in our contact list. The way, things are unfolding, #whatsapp has now becomes an easy means of extortions money by the scammers. It is vulnerable and only way to remain safe is by staying alert and not to entertain any unknow numbers.