Beware! WhatsApp Users Should Not Call On This Number And Be A Victim Of This Scam

WhatsApp scams are not new and a new threat to WhatsApp users has surfaced, courtesy of Rahul Sasi, Founder and CEO of CloudSEk, a contextual AI company.

If the victim falls prey and dials the number, the hacker can bypass WhatsApp's security and take over the victim's account. Image: Getty

New Delhi: WhatsApp scams are not new and a new threat to WhatsApp users has surfaced, courtesy of Rahul Sasi, Founder and CEO of CloudSEk, a contextual AI company that predicts cyber threats. The new WhatsApp scam works by calling the victim and asking them to make a call on a specific number. If they fall prey and dial the number, the hacker can bypass WhatsApp's security and take over the victim's account in no time. The victim is unable to notice if they have been hacked as there is no specific trace, the media has reported.

Similar to the WhatsApp OTP scam that had surfaced earlier in April 2021 and attacked many WhatsApp users, this new scam is "one of the simplest and also the most successful ways to hack someone’s account" as most people are under the impression that hackers can not gain control of their account when they call a number.

However, according to CloudSEk's Rahul Sasi who discovered the scam, this WhatsApp scam is being carried out easily. “Once the hacker gets access to the account, they request the victim’s contacts for money. In this manner, the attacker defrauds the victim’s WhatsApp contacts even before the victim realizes that they have lost control of their account. Since service providers across the globe use numbers that begin with’ 67′ or ‘405’, victims are wont to place the call without hesitation,” Rahul Sasi was quoted as saying by 91Mobiles.

The WhatsApp scammers work by urging the victims to call a number and then they can take over the account. In one of the simplest ways to hack a WhatsApp account, the hackers ask the victims to call “**67*<10 digit number> or *405*<10 digit number>”. Once the victim agrees to dial the mentioned number, the scammers take complete control over the victim's WhatApp account.