In recent news, Police in the UK has warned the WhatsApp users to be aware of the fraudsters sending the verification code without requesting by the user to steal accounts.
Tweet Posted by Southwark police in south London, officers had warned the users that scammers are stealing the accounts by asking users to share the fake verification codes sent through an SMS.
As per the analysis, the Fraudsters call the users pretending to be the WhatsApp support team and ask for the verification code to forward the six-digit code, which generates while users are proceeding for WhatsApp registration.
In this case, the user has not requested the verification code but the attacker has tried to register. To hijack your accounts by registering your mobile number for account stealing.
Official Website of WhatsApp gives the warning to users not to share the verification codes with anyone and to keep it secured. And once the attacker has access to your WhatsApp application, he will receive the feature messages and pretend to be you.
WhatsApp also says the reason for not to share the verification code with anyone, even though if they are your own family or friends.
“If you suspect someone else is using your WhatsApp account, you should notify family and friends as this individual could impersonate you in chats and groups. Please note, WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted and messages are stored on your device, so someone accessing your account on another device can’t read your past conversations.”
Recommendation:
- We are advised to keep WhatsApp secured by not only sharing your verification code but also enable the two-step verification.
- And restricting the profile photo to known contacts.
- Also, recommends to log out from all the devices that you have logged in if you have identified any suspicious activity from your WhatsApp accounts (WhatsApp Web / Desktop).