The growth of instant messaging applications has been enormous in recent years. Hence, cybercriminals try to take control of our accounts or steal money with some tricks like these that we show you for WhatsApp.
We use these instant messaging services today for both personal and more professional use. In addition, we exchange all kinds of more or less sensitive and private content with other users around the world. It is true that there are several platforms with these characteristics, but perhaps the most widely used and known globally is the aforementioned WhatsApp.
This is precisely why a growing number of cybercriminals have set their sights on this messaging application to attack their customers. Not in vain at this moment we can affirm that around 2000 million users use this platform in a more or less continuous way. Hence, the potential victims are many and the attackers want to take advantage of all of this. With all this, what we want to tell you is that we must be careful when using the WhatsApp application, especially if we share sensitive or private content.
In fact, in recent times some quite common and common deception attempts have been detected that we should avoid at all costs. This is precisely what we are going to talk about next so that you can avoid them and thus protect your WhatsApp account more efficiently, or prevent money from being stolen. And it is that we must take into account that losing control of it or being robbed can be a serious problem.
Common scams and deceptions on WhatsApp
Many want to take advantage of the ignorance or innocence of the users and steal the account of this messaging application, these are the most common methods.
- Fake gifts and packages: in order to steal a certain amount of money, many times we receive a message via WhatsApp through a prize we have won. The same happens with a supposed package that we are going to receive, but for all this they ask us for money in advance. These scams usually include a malicious attached link, so we should be wary in most cases.
- Phishing messages: We can also receive messages supposedly from loved ones, such as a child, who are in trouble. They urgently ask us, through the messaging application, for a certain amount of money. This is a fairly common scam and one that many fall for today due to the delicacy of the situation.
- The SMS scam: this is a fairly common scam in which we first receive an SMS on our mobile. This includes a verification code that is subsequently requested via WhatsApp. This can come to us through a supposed contact from the phonebook, or from an unknown number. By providing this verification code, we are giving access to our account, for which they can later ask us for a ransom.
In short, known or not, whenever they ask us for money through the messaging application we should be wary or at least make sure of another alternative way.
