Beware if you receive an pop-up which claims that you need to update your Whatsapp application on your smartphone.
The pop-up claims that the Whatsapp version which the ‘victim’ is using, is an outdated Whatsapp application and in order to update the Whatsapp application, the victim will have to provide his/her mobile number. An earlier version of this type was reported by Rickey Gevers.
Once the user clicks on the ‘Update whatsapp’ button which is shown above, the user will be redirected to the 77byte.com domain, which holds an affiliate program that runs by collecting mobile numbers.
The scam is currently hosted on:
hxxp://downland.whatsapap.com/NLN/
If you take a good look, you will see that the affiliate program will cost the ‘victim’ around 12 euros a week. Meaning that the cybercriminal/hacker can earn up to 624 euros each year with each mobile number that has been collected.
Whatsapp virus
We strongly urge everyone to be aware of these scams and viruses – NEVER update your software/applications via an pop-up – always navigate to the official website and download the latest version of your application from the official website.
So in this case, you will have to navigate to your Application market store, and download the latest version via the Application market store.
The 77byte.com environment is from an legal company in The Netherlands, and they claim that you can stop the service (if you have been tricked/infected) by sending the following text message to 77byte.com
In order to stop the service send:
TEXT MESSAGE: STOP
MOBILE NUMBER: 3555
Please inform your environment about this Whatsapp virus and make sure that you warn people which are sharing this virus/scam.