Many people throughout the world now use WhatsApp as their primary communication platform. In the course of a short time, WhatsApp has become a hotbed for spam and commercial communications despite its popularity. People switched to WhatsApp as it has become a more user-friendly service helping millions across the world to connect using the internet. Sadly, WhatsApp users are now dealing with new challenges, more precisely scams!
Earlier, it used to be called from scammers, who would call or chat and then ask people to share OTP to extort money from the victims. The conversation would be convincing which makes the victims share their personal information. Receiving calls from international numbers is one of the most widespread scams on WhatsApp nowadays. According to the ISD codes, these calls—both audio and video—frequently come from different countries like Indonesia (+62), Ethiopia (+251), Malaysia (+60), Kenya (+254), Vietnam (+84) etc.
When we say that these are real traps, it indeed is. A person who is not aware of these fake calls will undoubtedly fall victim to scammers’ traps. These calls are happening more frequently, and it makes sense that a lot of people are worried about how scammers got their phone numbers.
Given that WhatsApp calls originate through the internet, the calls don’t need to be also coming from these countries. You never know when you will receive such calls. A friend of mine recently received one of these calls, which traumatised him. After receiving the call, his social media accounts were hacked and inappropriate videos and photos were shared among his friend circle. The incidents affect the victims far more than anyone would imagine, however, for the scammers it is all about the extortion of money.
Users have also reported the new scam on the microblogging site Twitter. “Dear @WhatsApp, You have a huge number of users in India (close to 500 million). You should update privacy settings & give option that ‘only saved contacts can call’. The cases of sextortion and scams from international numbers (ISD codes) on WhatsApp are on the rise in India,” tweeted Anshul Saxena.
So, what to do when you receive such calls?
People should be first aware of such scams and how they should handle them if they encounter such situations. Never give your personal information or send money to any account simply because a total stranger online asks you to do so.
Don’t answer any unknown international calls. It is advised to ignore and block any calls from international numbers if you receive one. These con artists may be trying to extort your money or trying to get your personal information.
You can also block a contact on WhatsApp by opening a chat with the contact, and then tap More > Block > Block. You can also report the contact by tapping Report contact > Block.