Beware WhatsApp users, you could be the next hacking victim of a hacking campaign through text message service. If you receive this message via text message, your account may be hacked.
WhatsApp is the most popular and widely accepted messaging services in the world, with more than 1 Billion active users. This figure is going high day by day, so in the present scenario WhatsApp has become a lucrative target for hackers. The objective behind this is to gain user’s personal information and use the available information for illicit activities.
The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has issued an alert, giving warning to WhatsApp users not to share or forward anyone verification code message received via SMS, unless it was generated by them. Don’t share such codes otherwise, their account may be compromised. Many WhatsApp user’s accounts were hacked recently using the same tricks by hackers.
Mobile owners are advised to take precaution while opening an attachment or any link/url in the message, as it may be a trick by hackers to take control of your account and to have access on your photos and messages.
The main security measure users could take is to delete any unsought message/SMS, claiming to be from WhatsApp.
Till now, this scam is only reported from UAE, not seen in other parts of the world, but there is a high probability that hackers may target other parts of the world using this scam campaign.