Facebook’s WhatsApp is one of the most popular instant messaging platforms which is honestly, hard to replace at this point, only because of its wide acceptance throughout the world. Not that it cannot be replaced, with the company’s latest policy change incident, several thousand people switched to alternatives like Telegram and Signal, boycotting WhatsApp but guess what, they still have it, ‘just in case’. The fact is, it is hard to replace WhatsApp but following the latest scams and malicious activity taking place on Facebook’s most popular app- is it safe for us to use WhatsApp at all?
According to recent reports, criminals and attackers are exploiting the need of the hour, delivery, and global supply chain network to trick people into fraud and identity theft. Kaspersky reports that users should be on their toes for recognizing a malicious message and opening it with 100 percent caution. These are the times where people are shopping online and not moving out of their houses to buy stuff, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We all get messages that your delivery will arrive on so and so date, so these bad actors hide under fake delivery messages to fool users. When people interact with a malicious delivery message on online purchases, they simultaneously get ripped off their private data, making it an identity theft scam, according to experts.
Furthermore, Kaspersky has also warned users about using WhatsApp and the growing number of scams utilizing WhatsApp and its resources in order to defraud users out of money. This can be done via a message, a multimedia attachment, a document, or a link. Thus, users have to be cautious about what they are opening and what is the source of the message. The anti-virus platform says that scamsters and bad actors are also pushing fake applications and dating platforms to carry out their scams.
There is a significant growth in cases like this over the past few months and Kaspersky is warning users to be cautious about where they order their products from. As noted in a report by Techradar, WhatsApp’s latest privacy policy change concerning sharing of information with parent company Facebook Inc. was a big confusion for people and bad actors took advantage of this by sending users illegitimate invites to take part in WhatsApp chats with strangers. However, when people clicked on the link, they were redirected to a fake Facebook login page where they entered their credentials and boom, identity stolen!
In conclusion, Kaspersky is advising people to always check the credibility of the source from where they open links, messages, and media. They also advise people on shopping from legitimate websites to avoid fake scandals and the potential risk of identity theft and loss of personal information.