WhatsApp users increasingly vulnerable to digital scams. Photo: illustration by Sutterstock
The scams of Whatsapp They are more common than they seem. Cybercriminals often find new ways to deceive users give up control of your accounts.
Now, security researchers have found a new scam which allows you to steal accounts of WhatsApp users via a simple phone call.
The person in charge of finding this brand new digital scam was Rahul Sasifounder and CEO of CloudSEk, a contextual artificial intelligence company that predicts cyber threats.
When victims receive a call from the cybercriminal on duty, they are instructed to dial phone numbers starting with 67 or 405. After making the call, they are logged out of their WhatsApp accounts and so on. gain full control in seconds.
“Once the hacker gains access to the account, request money from the victim’s contacts. In this way, it scams the victim’s WhatsApp contacts even before the victim realizes that they have lost control of their account. This method works globally because every country and service provider has an identical service request number. “
WhatsApp: how to avoid falling in love with the new scam
The “two-step verification” in WhatsApp.
The easiest way to avoid any problems is to ignore the original call or, if answered, do not return it, as they ask to be done. Keep in mind that no mobile phone company in the world would ask a customer to do this.
Another resource is to enable 2-Step Security Verification on your account. In this way, the cybercriminals would not be able to access the account because they would not have the necessary information, which would reach the user, to complete the second step.
Having enabled this feature, WhatsApp will appear on the screen after successfully registering the phone number.
When this function is active, the user generates e confirm a unique PIN required to log into your account. Please note that this 2-Step Verification PIN is different from the 6-digit registration code you receive via text or call.
WhatsApp tests the modification of messages
The message editing function can be performed directly from the message.
On the other hand, the messaging service would be in full development of a text editing tool. This option is very interesting because since it is not necessary to delete them, as is currently the case, it will only be necessary to modify the content once sent to the contact.
What WhatsApp will do is add an extra button to the functions we find when we click on a message. Therefore, the text will be changed from the text field, as if it were a normal new message, and not from the balloon of the message already sent.
According to WhatsApp information site WABetaInfo, this new tool would reach Apple iOS and Android, as well as the desktop and web versions of the instant messaging platform. This feature was announced shortly after the messenger included emoji reactions to messages.
With information from La Vanguardia.
Source: Clarin
