We have increasingly seen WhatsApp frauds rising steadily over the past few months—not only have we seen job scams, people receiving calls from international numbers wherein fraudsters act as company representatives to dupe unsuspecting victims, but we have also seen WhatsApp call forwarding scams—wherein scammers trick people into dialing call forwarding codes—and this is exactly what happened with a woman from Tollygunge, Kolkata.
According to a report by The Times of India, a 45-year-old woman from Kolkata got in touch with the Cyber Cell to report that her WhatsApp account had been compromised, and that the scammers are pretending to be her and messaging her contacts, asking for money on the pretext of her needing money to go to Odisha.
The complainant said that the Wi-Fi at her residence was malfunctioning, so she filed a complaint with telecom service providers’ customer care asking for help.
Later, on June 5, she received a call from a person who pretended to be a customer care executive and instructed her to dial starting with 401—a code used to forward calls and messages on numbers ending with 67 and other sets. The fraudster masquerading as the executive reassured that her problem would be solved.
Later, the woman discovered that her WhatsApp account was compromised and that her contacts were receiving messages asking for money on her behalf.
The Times of India notes that the Kolkata police also shared an example of another woman who had come across the same fraud but the hackers demanded ransom for letting go her account.
The Police even took to Facebook to share the common occurrence. “WhatsApp Getting Hacked! If you receive this kind of message and if any person on your WhatsApp contacts list (even if known) asks you to forward the same, please don’t do so. Fraudsters are using this to take control of your WhatsApp account. We have received a few such complaints and seek your cooperation,” the Police said.
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