Don’t Be Fooled by Whatsapp Support
Scammers have no honor: they will pretend to be anyone and say whatever they need to make you give up your personal information. Their latest trick is to impersonate WhatsApp “support” to steal your credit card information and hack into your messaging account. Don’t give them satisfaction. Here’s what to pay attention to.
According to WABetaInfo , scammers are impersonating WhatsApp employees in an attempt to give users a false sense of security. After all, if you think you’re talking to an official WhatsApp account, you might be more comfortable sharing personal information or financial details. Scammers who have a confirmation checkmark on their profile picture will inform you that your WhatsApp account is in danger of being closed and in order to keep your account you will need to provide “support” with a valid credit card number. For additional “proof”, they may also ask for your two-factor authentication code. Classic whatsapp support, just trying to be helpful.
Here’s the thing: WhatsApp support will never ask you for it. Always. Whatsapp is free . App support will not ask for your credit card information just to prevent your account from being deleted. Also, you should never share your two-factor authentication code with anyone on WhatsApp or anywhere else. Two-factor codes are essentially temporary passwords that confirm that you have access to a trusted device to sign into your account. You must enter this code yourself only when you are trying to log in to an account that uses them.
The scammers know they can’t hack accounts with two-factor authentication enabled without these codes, so they pretend to be from the relevant company or app, hoping you feel safe enough to share these numbers. Do not do that.
Don’t be fooled by the profile picture: official WhatsApp accounts have a verification checkmark next to their contact name, not on their avatar. Scammers can’t add verification to their name, so they attach it to their profile picture and hope no one thinks twice. WABetaInfo has a great side by side showcasing the difference if you want to see it for yourself.
I’ll commend these scammers for thinking about putting a check on their profile photo, but otherwise I give them an A. This whole ploy smacks of fraud from top to bottom. In 2022, I expect more from people who want to trick me into sharing my personal information. If you encounter this obvious scam on your part, please end the conversation immediately and report your account to WhatsApp support – the real WhatsApp support – just in case.