To avoid being scammed on WhatsApp, we advised you not to click on promotion links, to avoid providing personal data to strangers, and not to forward messages.
The vast majority of scams on WhatsApp occur through social engineering when a text invites a user to click on a link or download a file. As a rule, criminals use big company names, for example, Google, Apple, Facebook, news topics like Covid-19 at the moment.
They can use very attractive offers (last year it was a “promotion” of about 1,000 gigabytes of free Internet for the 10th anniversary of the service).
Scammers often fake official WhatsApp profiles by copying the name and design. If you’re asked to provide very personal information, for example, credit card numbers, accounts, dates of birth, passwords – it’s a trap. No one will ever ask you for this data for a good reason.
Do not forward messages
We recommend that you be careful when someone offers to forward a message to several contacts in order to update the messaging system or emojis, confirm your activity or continue using the application for free.
By forwarding messages to others, you contribute to the spread of the scam. In addition, these messages usually contain a phishing link. When you click, anything can happen, including downloading malware and stealing your personal and payment information.
We advise you to disable the automatic loading of multimedia files in the settings and not to accept files from unknown contacts.
