Scam Alert Complaints & Reviews
Posted On: 28/11/2016
By: s_suman
Giving away a warning to all WhatsApp users across the globe, a report said that clicking on the links circulated on instant messaging app may expose and make them vulnerable to cyberattacks.
According to a report in The Sun newspaper, hackers are using simple tricks to fool people into visiting booby-trapped websites and then fleecing them.
WhatsApp recently rolled out much-awaited video calling for its users. The feature is now available across all platforms and user has to only update the app to start making video calls.
However, spammers have found this update as an opportunity to spam user’s phone and put the personal data at security risk. They are sending out invite links asking user to download group video calling feature on the phones. These are malicious links circulated by the scamsters to access user’s personal data.
The link reads, “You’re invited to try WhatsApp Video Calling feature. Only people with the invitation can enable this feature.” Once the user clicks on the link and it asks to invite more friends for video-calling to activate on the device.
Please note that WhatsApp has not made any such official announcement and these links may put your personal data at security risk. It is possible that scamsters and hackers have set up this scam to access crucial data like mails or personal contacts.
“If you receive an email asking you to “activate” the function by visiting a website, make sure you don’t click it. Anyone who is tricked into visiting the danger pages could end up being targeted by digital criminals,” the report pointed out.
Earlier this month, announcing that India now has nearly 160 million monthly active users, WhatsApp launched a video calling feature here which was rolled out globally. The feature is available on all platforms — Android, iOS and Windows.
WhatsApp is available in more than 50 different languages around the world and in 10 Indian languages. Nearly 100 million calls are being made on the platform daily worldwide.
With the video calling feature, WhatsApp will now compete with Microsoft-owned Skype and Google’s Duo.