Avoid WhatsApp viruses, scams and hoaxes

Marie Brewis reveals how to stay safe and evade scams

WhatsApp scams used to focus on the idea that you would be charged for the service, but now they offer scam shopping vouchers and dodgy links that download malware. Here are some of the WhatsApp scams you should delete and forget, plus how to avoid WhatsApp viruses, scams and hoaxes.

WhatsApp scam offers free £250 Sainsbury’s or M&S voucher

One of the most common WhatsApp scams in January 2017 is one that offers a link with the promise of a free £250 gift card for either Sainsbury’s or Marks & Spencer. The M&S version is pictured above.

By clicking on the link you are taken to a survey page that asks you to answer various personal questions. This survey has absolutely nothing to do with the supermarket, and everything to do with stealing your data. Do not fill in the survey and do not pass on the message.

WhatsApp malware threatens to steal personal information

The most recent WhatsApp scam to come to our attention hopes to trick the user into opening a

legitimate-looking Word, Excel or PDF document attached to a WhatsApp message that will actually download malware to their device that can steal their personal information.

All reports so far originate from India, and apparently use the names of the NDA (National Defence Academy) and NIA (National Investigation Agency) in an attempt to get users to open them, but it won’t take much for the scam to make its way to the UK too. Only last month a similar message did the rounds in the UK that tried to persuade users to download a £100 Sainsbury’s voucher. In reality, the link simply installed cookies or a browser extension on the user’s phone that could be used to serve adverts to them.

The easiest way to avoid this scam is to delete the message, and never to download an unexpected document attachment – whether or not it comes from a trusted contact.

WhatsApp is not ending at 6pm

The latest WhatsApp charging scam to catch our attention goes as follows:

“Tomorrow at 6 pm they are ending WhatsApp and you have to pay to open it, this is by law

“This message is to inform all of our users, our servers have recently been very congested, so we are asking you to help us solve this problem. We require our active users to forward this message to each of the people in your contact list to confirm our active users using WhatsApp, if you do not send this message to all your contacts WhatsApp will then start to charge you. Your account will

remain inactive with the consequence of losing all your contacts. Message from Jim Balsamic (CEO of Whatsapp ) we have had an over usage of user names on whatsapp Messenger. We are requesting all users to forward this message to their entire contact list. If you do not forward this message, we will take it as your account is invalid and it will be deleted within the next 48 hours. Please DO NOT ignore this message or whatsapp will no longer recognise your activation.

“If you wish to re-activate your account after it has been deleted, a charge of 25.00 will be added to your monthly bill.

“We are also aware of the issue involving the pictures updates not showing. We are working diligently at fixing this problem and it will be up and running as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperation from the Whatsapp team

“WhatsApp is going to cost us money soon. The only way that it will stay free is if you are a frequent user i.e. you have at least 10 people you are chatting with. To become a frequent user send this message to 10 people who receive it (2 ticks) and your WhatsApp logo should turn blue”

This is absolutely not true, and under no circumstances should you fall for it.

WhatsApp Gold: WhatsApp Premium is a con

The latest hoax doing the rounds is an exclusive invitation to upgrade to a premium version of the app, called WhatsApp Gold. It’s complete and utter rubbish: there is no WhatsApp Gold.

“The invitation reads: “Hey Finally Secret Whatsapp golden version has been leaked, This version is used only by big celebrities. Now we can use it too.”

It claims to allow you to delete messages after you’ve sent them, and simultaneously send 100 pictures, among other things. It sounds great, but it’s entirely made up. Click on the link in the invitation and you’re more likely to end up with a malware infection.

WhatsApp virus: How to avoid WhatsApp virus

The latest WhatsApp scam isn’t delivered by WhatsApp itself but through your email app on your Android phone or iPhone. It tells you that you have missed a WhatsApp call or have a WhatsApp voice message, which you should click on the link in the email to access. Rather than your message, you get a virus downloaded to your device. Please don’t be fooled. WhatsApp will never contact you outside the WhatsApp app itself, so if you see this then do not click the link and delete the message.

WhatsApp chain message hoaxes: Is WhatsApp closing down?

One WhatsApp hoax that regularly does the rounds is that which asks you to forward the message to 10 people or the service will close down. WhatsApp has millions of users, and it really won’t notice you sending 10 messages through the service. It is not about to close down, and this is very much a hoax.

Another variation suggests there are too many WhatsApp users, and it will close your account if you don’t start using it. The chain message reads:

“Message from Jim Balsamic (CEO of Whatsapp). We have had an over usage of user names on WhatsApp Messenger. We are requesting all users to forward this message to their entire contact list.

“If you do not forward this message, we will take it as your account is invalid and it will be deleted within the next 48 hours. Please DO NOT ignore this message or WhatsApp will no longer recognise your activation.”

If you don’t act in time, WhatsApp will apparently charge you £25 to reactivate your account, which will be added to your phone bill. Except it won’t, because WhatsApp is now a free service.

WhatsApp chain message hoaxes: Is WhatsApp going to start charging inactive users?

The most popular hoax is one that suggests the service will start charging inactive users a certain amount per message, so by sending the message on to 10 users they can prove they are an active member and loyal, and therefore deserving of its free service. Really? Ask yourself how sending that message you don’t pay for to 10 people could possibly keep open the company if it was that desperate for cash? If it were skint, it wouldn’t have decided to ditch its subscription fees.

One variation of this message claims to come from the app’s founder, ‘David D. Suretech’. Never

mind that Brian Acton and Jan Koum are the actual founders of WhatsApp. It reads:

”Hello, I. Am DAVID D. SURETECH founder of Whatsapp. this message is to inform all of our users that we have only 53million accounts available for new phones. Our servers have recently been very congested, so we asking for your help to solve this problem. We need our active users to forward this message to every single person in their contact list in order to confirm our active users that use WhatsApp. If you do not send this message to all your contacts to WhatsApp, then your account will remain inactive with the consequence of losing all your contacts.

“The automatic update symbol on your SmartPhone Will appear with the transmission of this message. Your smartphone will be updated within 24 hours, and will feature a new design; a new color for the chat and the icon will change from green to azul. Whatsapp will begin to charge unless you are a frequent user. If you have at least 10 contacts send this sms and the logo will become red on your platform to indicate that you are an active user. Tomorrow, we wil begin to take messages for whatsapp for 0.37 cents. Forward this message to more than 9 people in your contact list and the what’s app logo on your will turn blue meaning that you have Become a free user for life.”

WhatsApp’s response to all such scams is as follows: “Please understand that this is a hoax and there is no truth to it.”