Scams on WhatsApp! When fraudsters send this message, here is what YOU do

People now prefer doing online payments compared to making payments in cash. There are several applications like Google Pay, Paytm, among others which are used for making online payments. Now, WhatsApp can also be used for making payments via WhatsApp Payment. As digitalisation has got a boost, cyber crimes have also increased. Scammers can be found everywhere, even on WhatsApp. They try to fool you to steal your money.

It is very important to stay safe from frauds as it can cause you huge financial losses. But what are the techniques used by fraudsters and what you can do to protect your account? Scammers usually buy a VoIP number (that is not allowed to be used on WhatsApp) and they may have different targets: a specific person or random people. When they find a valid phone number, they send a message asking something like “Sorry, who are you? I found you in my address book”.

You will always find fraudsters to be nice with you because they want to gain your trust. As per the information provided by WABetaInfo in a report, fraudsters start asking for simple details, for example, what your name and job are and how old you are, and they pay some compliments to make you feel good.

They may also ask you to add them on your social networking sites like Facebook and Instagram. And from there these scammers will try getting access to your public information like your friends list and other interesting details that may help them steal your money.

They can even end up blackmailing you by saying that they will share some confidential pictures (real pictures, if you naively shared them, or edited pictures) with your friends and family if you do not send them money. But you are advised to not panic in such situations and do not transfer money to them.

Scam on WhatsApp: How to protect yourself

1. You should always ignore unknown contacts and do not share private information such as your personal social account.

2. You can report the contact to WhatsApp from their contact info. You can also report specific messages.

3. Be sure to set the privacy setting for your profile photo to “My Contacts”. If something goes wrong, please report anything to the police: the police may be able to locate the phone number.