Police of Singapore Alert for Fraud Involving Hacked Account of WhatsApp

Has somebody from your contact list approached you for yourverification code for your WhatsApp account recently? Look out, a scammer might be misusing your compromised WhatsApp account's contact to make that appeal, the police stated in a news release on 18th April, Wednesday.

The police have gotten documents of WhatsApp accounts,that were taken control by scammers the (SPF) Singapore Police Force said in a news announcement on 18th April, Wednesday.

First victim would receive a message from WhatsApp from someone from their contact, whose account may have been hacked. The message request for verification code for WhatsApp account that the victim might have received via SMS. Another variation of the scam described overseas noticed scammers cheating people on the contact list of victim's WhatsApp. They were requested to give the gift card's password they bought to the scammers, which enabled them to put gift cards for sale online as uploaded on asiaone.com dated 18/04/2018.

The police instruct to the general population to select the following crime avoidance measures. Be careful with irregular requests got over WhatsApp even if coming from their known contacts. Call every friend personally and confirm the validness of the request. Keep safe their WhatsApp account by allowing the application's 'two-step confirmation' feature.

"Once the scammer receives the verification code of WhatsApp the account of the victim would eventually stop working," as quoted by the Singapore Police Force while saying.

SPF included that a variation of the scam has been detailed abroad where the scammers have utilized the compromised accounts to cheat with the contacts of the account holders for buying gift vouchers and sending over the card's password. The scammer later sold the gift vouchers online.

The police guided individuals of the public to lookout forunfamiliar requestsreceived in WhatsApp, even though they were sent by the contacts of WhatsApp. Anybody with more knowledge aboutsuch scams can call the hotline number of police at 1800-255-0000, or 999 for emergency police help.

To look for scam-related guidance, individuals from the publicmight call the anti-scam helpline of National Crime Prevention Council at 1800-722-6688 or visit www.scamalert.sg.

» SPAMfighter News - 4/24/2018