Complaints have increased about a scam, offering ‘upgrade’ of the widely used WhatsApp. It is a sinister information gathering project that aims to steal personal info with the purpose of selling it for profits on the black market or using it for other evil purposes.
The Scam Unveiled
The website is currently being advertised by fake users in watts app that are bots, programmed to send automated messages with hotlinks to installing this as the add-on to the app. Texts such as ‘Try this out! It’s Awesome!’ or ‘The new WhatssApp look is here! Click here for an upgrade.’ are being sent as spam to multiple users to lure them into connecting to the website ‘whatsappblue.com’.
Once the user is logged in, the scamming begins by prompting him to enter a phone number. The developers have crafted a fake verification window to increase the realism and make it more trustworthy by the user. Once the number has been ‘verified’, it redirects the person to identification process that is a cunning tool to lure the victim invite other people, making the scam advertising process more trustworthy.
Another vicious feature of this scam is redirecting the victim to a survey which is actually information gathering web page, prompting clients of the app to enter their personal info and bank details and other credentials in order to claim their free bonus or win a prize. And the scary part is what follows – the user begins to receive all types of fake offers, prizes over the phone which if opened, subscribe them to the scammers’ SMS network, masked as a service, charging them enormous amounts of money for an SMS service that does absolutely nothing.
How to Protect Yourself
There are different means of detecting such scams but do they help completely after the damage is done to the victim? It doesn’t seem logical, so the only safety strategy for you… is you. It is crucial to create safe internet habits such as keeping up to date with the latest in online scamming because this might just save you from infections. It is also important to research the subject well if you are interested since there are powerful programs that detect such fraudulent attempts.