Although we are more accustomed to seeing this type of approach on WhatsApp, the truth is that the entry of unsolicited messages on Signal is also recurring. Signal, as a messaging app, differs from WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and other popular alternatives by offering a completely privacy-focused approach. In fact, it uses a PIN code system to verify the users who use it, instead of using the phone number, email or other means.
Although the app puts the privacy and discretion of communications between its users above all else, this does not prevent cybercriminals who may have obtained our phone number as a result of a data leak or similar from contacting us without prior notice. . It is also possible that they achieve this by opening conversations with random numbers.
I myself have had this problem with bots and scam farms on WhatsApp for a long time: they added me to massive groups without my permission, and they opened conversations with all kinds of unknown numbers with foreign people in their profile photos who don’t even speak Spanish.
Although this activity has been relaxed for some time (I blocked the possibility of strangers adding me to groups) and now my WhatsApp account is calmer, I have been able to see how the same thing began to happen to me in Signal.
I have had a Signal account for a long time, although I do not use the app at all, nor do I share anything about it on any network. I downloaded it at the time to test it and there it stayed, without me entering it regularly. However, throughout October I received up to three messages from three different phone numbers, and all of them with what appear to be Asian girls in their profile photos (I say seem because there is a good chance that they are cleverly created images artificial).
How did they find me?
Seeing this impressed me because I thought that Signal would somehow have more demanding firewalls that would prevent people to whom you have not given authorization from talking to you, but we see that this is not the case.
But, snooping around a little, I realized that there is a function that may be to blame for a stranger being able to talk to me through Signal: in the privacy menu > phone number > we should select “no one” under the “who” option. You can find me with my number. That way, they won’t get as much information about my Signal account even though my number may have been leaked.
Apart from this, what needs to be said is that once you receive that unsolicited message in your inbox, Signal gives you three options: block, report or accept. Apparently, the app only allows a stranger to send you a single message, after which they cannot send you more. To be able to do this, you will have to be the one to click on “accept”, thereby allowing that other person to send you messages and see your name and photo.
Furthermore, until you click accept, the interlocutor will not know whether or not you have read the message.
Apart from this, the app gives you a notice with the following message: «You have no groups in common. Please review the applications carefully. Next to this text, a button is incorporated to quickly review a menu of security tips, in which the app warns of common scams in its ecosystem: fake companies or supposed government institutions, messages with links, cryptocurrency or money scams, and what they define as “confusing or irrelevant messages.”
These “hi” (“hello”) that I received from these unknown contacts are part of that last category, and are aimed at answering with another “hello” to find out who it is or what it is about, and from there start a dialogue.
Privacy Tips on Signal
If you are going to start a conversation with someone of dubious origin, you would do well to change your name or your photo, in case your face appears in it, before clicking “accept” and talking to someone whose identity you are not sure of. .
Also be careful not to have published a story that reveals something personal about you, since like WhatsApp, Signal also allows you to publish stories (in fact, after all, Signal is quite similar to WhatsApp). You also have the option to completely disable stories, which you will find in the top left button in the stories menu.
We see that Signal is also a channel available to cybercriminals. Few communication channels are safe from spam.
