New scam emerges now with WhatsApp getting compromised

Hyderabad: What appeared to be a transfer of money to a relative with the genuine intention to help turned out into a cyber fraud for a 65-year-old victim, who lost Rs 2 lakh. The victim had received a WhatsApp message purportedly from his daughter-in-law’s father, asking for Rs 2 lakh and promising to return the money in two days. It turned out that the message was from a scamster.

“This was the first time they had asked me for money in years. That too with their contact number, display picture, everything in place. Initially, we knew that we could get messages from unknown numbers claiming to be family. But we get messages from a known number. How is it possible for one to differentiate,” the victim asked.

A day later, when the victim met his relative and asked for the reason behind the request for money. The relative replied that he had never asked for money and that his WhatsApp had been hacked. “I had saved the amount after my retirement and my son’s marriage. It was heartbreaking when I lost it in just a couple of minutes,” the victim said.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, director of TG Cyber Security Bureau, Shikha Goel said, “Be it any scam, one of the tricks that works 99 per cent of the time is to disconnect and call back. If a scamster calls you, try to stay composed and disconnect the call and then call them back. Ninetynine per cent of the time, the call won’t go through, as the scamster does not call you the way people normally make calls. There are just outgoing services in their phones, not incoming.”

Speaking of the nature of the scam that the pensioner fell far, DGP Goel said, “Earlier, we would get calls from other numbers where people would deepfake the voice and make it sound similar to a known person. Now they directly hack into your accounts. The only way not to get scammed is by just calling back that relative and and checking if they need money.”

She said that to avoid such hacks, cyber hygiene is a must. Clicking suspicious links or files is always dangerous and is a pathway for the scamster to put one’s data in a compromisable position.

Recently, a victim received a phone call from the person claiming to be a bank executive, offering an increase in credit limit. Soon after the victim was asked for his credit card credentials and was sent an APK file to install, the victim lost over Rs 2.5 lakh.

“There are two ways of doing this scam, one when they install the display pictures of people who do not have them protected, and the other through suspicious links and APK files. In the case of APK files, the device gets compromised, so apart from just scamming the person whose phone got compromised, the scamster also texts everybody through their WhatsApp number. We always suggest people to not click on any suspicious links, documents, files and not leave their data out there,” a cybercrime SI from the Cyberabad commissionerate cautioned.

Safety tips:

1. Always try to call back the person and verify without relying on just a text

2. Do not let images/videos out there, have verification processes and utilise safety features provided by the application

3. Never click on any suspicious links or install any APK files/ remote apps

4. Be it any scam, disconnect the call first and then try to call back, 99 per cent the call won’t go through