Knowing that Internet scams are the order of the day, it is advisable to know the techniques used by fraudsters and to be careful to avoid avoid falling into the trap. Today, scammers use the most diverse strategies to get their hands on our personal data or even our card data: fake Treasury SMS, missed calls scam or likes scam are just a few examples of the most recent scams.
Many scammers use WhatsApp as a platform to try to scam us. In fact, it is likely that in recent months you received a strange message via popular messaging app, like Rosa Caro Serrano Messages. If at any time someone contacts you asking for a digital code, this is a scam and could cause you to lose your account.
Scammers contact us to take over our WhatsApp account
To configure WhatsApp on a new device, it is necessary to confirm our identity using a six-digit numeric code which we will receive by SMS on our usual number. Once you receive this code, you must enter it on the new device before you can use your WhatsApp account. As you may have imagined, fraudsters are trying to get their hands on this code to take control of our account.
To do th is, the scammers (who have previously obtained our phone number) enter our number into the WhatsApp application. Then the person they are trying to scam receive a text message
Sometimes scammers pretend to be one of our contacts (whom they had already scammed) or simply contact us explaining that They entered our number by mistake and ask us for the six-digit code to access your account. If we fall into the trap, we will automatically lose access to our account, which will remain in the hands of the scammers.
Once scammers take control of our account, they can access our contact list and try to scam our family and friends in a variety of ways. Given the danger of this scam, the Civil Guard has already warned of its dangers.
What to do if you receive a message like this
The best thing we can do if we receive a strange message through WhatsApp (or any other messaging app) is to block the number as quickly as possible and not respond to the person who contacted us. Of course, Under no circumstances must we provide the code what they ask us. If we fall into the trap, it is important to alert our interlocutors and contact the competent authorities.
At this point it is worth highlighting the importance of activating two-step verification in our WhatsApp account. This measure adds an additional layer of security that requires us to enter a PIN code created by the user (in addition to the six-digit registration code we receive via SMS) to register our phone number on a new device.
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In Xataka Android | There are more and more scams circulating on WhatsApp: here are the most common ones and how to deal with them
