WhatsApp fraud: A woman loses over ₹15.62 lakh after scammers pretended to be her daughter
Premium- One can directly report a scam on WhatsApp by going to Settings-Help- and then clicking on 'Contact Us'.
A woman in the UK was scammed out of almost 16,000 pounds sterling on WhatsApp. According to a news report by BBC, Paula Boughton, the victim, received a text message from what she presumed was her daughter, asking her mother to delete the old phone number as she would be given a new number.
Paula said her daughter then asked her to make a few transactions. "I agreed to make the transaction as my daughter sent me the payee's detail and the account number," she told BBC.
"I presumed it was my daughter, and I thought, well, because of the situation, I was able to do that, and I feel that I've been made a fool of," she added.
WhatsApp scams are everywhere and are happening too frequently with hackers adopting new tactics to dupe innocent users.
Recently, scammers hijacked WhatsApp accounts with a phone call. This scam was highlighted by Rahul Sasi, founder, and CEO of CloudSEk. According to cyber experts, victims get a call from hackers who instruct them to dial numbers beginning with '67' or '405'. Those who follow the instructions, they get logged out from their account, and hackers hijack it.
How to avoid becoming a victim of a WhatsApp scam?
1. Avoid taking calls from unknown numbers.
2. In case you take calls from unknown numbers. Don't dial any OTP if that comes during that call. Avoid sharing any financial details.
3. One can directly report a scam on WhatsApp by going to Settings-Help- and then clicking on 'Contact Us'.