Scams Masquerading As Official WhatsApp Accounts, Beware Of Thieves Stealing Personal Information

Criminals can trick their victims, including pretending to be an official WhatsApp Support account. (photo: Doc. WABetaInfo)

JAKARTA - Cybercriminals often take any action that can trick their victims, including pretending to be an official WhatsApp Support account.

WABetaInfo reports, WhatsApp users are now easy targets for a clever new scam, in which the victim will hand over personal information to a fake WhatsApp Support account for free.

At first, the perpetrators in the scam offered to users. To make the victims more trustworthy, they use convincing profile pictures and usernames, the perpetrators try to trick people into giving up credit card details by threatening to delete their WhatsApp accounts.

Then, the user will get a suspicious message from the anonymous account asking for their six-digit login code.

However, there is an easy way to find out if a WhatsApp contact is real or not, and that is just to open their profile information.

"When you chat with a verified contact, there's a verified badge placed next to the contact's name in their conversation and chat info screen," says WABetaInfo.

"If you see the verified badge located in a different place, for example on your profile photo, it means the contact is pretending to be verified but is trying to trick you."

In addition, WABetaInfo confirmed that WhatsApp never asked for details about the user's credit card and information such as a 6-digit code or two-step verification PIN.

"WhatsApp doesn't even ask for money or confidential information to avoid account termination. If someone wants to get this information, it means a fake account trying to trick you," explained WABetaInfo.

If the user receives the message as described, it is best advised to block and report the contact in question directly.

Launching DailyStar, Tuesday, April 26, this year has seen a huge increase in the number of WhatsApp scams. As Easter Day unfolded, the UK was hit with a WhatsApp scam promising a free basket of Easter chocolates from Cadbury with the click of a link.

But as it turns out, those links are designed to steal your personal information. A Cadbury spokesperson said: "We can confirm that this was not created by us and would urge Cadbury fans not to interact or share personal information by post.