...it's not for you!
Matt Allwright's catch phrase on Watchdog (BBC consumer rights program for those who don't watch UK t.v.) always seemed the perfect way to avoid being scammed either online or off and I try to live my online life in a way he would approve.
I know a lot of folks in here use WhatsApp and we think of it as being secure. This article arrived from my local neighbourhood policing team about scams related specifically to WhatsApp. I know most of us are way too savvy to fall for something as obviously daft as this, but you might know someone who isn't as clever and would benefit from the caution herein. I know at least one person, two including my lovely neighbour, who are active in WhatsApp groups but who live their lives in a cloud of trust and oblivion to the thieves, footpads and ne'er-do-wells of this world and who 'might' just fall for the ruse below.
Whether they would twig it was a scam when it got to the punch line is another matter.
........Reproduced without permission.......
"Large community and religious WhatsApp groups are being targeted by scammers who infiltrate them to try and deceive their members into sending them money. Since January of this year, 268 people have reported falling victim to this scam.
The fraud often begins when a member of the group receives a WhatsApp audio call from the fraudster, pretending, or claiming, to be a member of the group. This is done in order to gain the individual’s trust, and often the scammer will use a false profile picture and / or display name, so at first glance it would appear to be a genuine member of the group.
The fraudster will then call the victim and say they are sending a one-time passcode which will allow them to join an upcoming video call for group members. The scammer then asks the victim to share this passcode with them so they can be “registered†for the video call. What’s really happening is that the scammer is asking for a registration code to register the victim’s WhatsApp account to a new device where they then “port†their WhatsApp profile over.
Once the fraudster has access to the victim’s WhatsApp account, they will enable two-step verification which makes it impossible for the victim to access their account. The scammer will then message other members of the group, or friends and family in the victim’s contacts, asking them to transfer money urgently as they are in desperate need of help."
Forewarned and all that.
