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If you regularly communicate with your family on WhatsApp, be on your guard – it’s also a place where scammers operate, playing on the fact so many of us feels safe in the app’s familiarity.
There are many ways con artists can gain crucial information to steal your money or identity, such as claiming to be your child or friend with a broken phone, telling you you’ve won a competition, have landed a great job or are missing out on an amazing opportunity.
While WhatsApp scams are constantly evolving, Dr Jessica Barker, CEO of cybersecurity firm Cygenta and author of a new book Hacked: The Secrets Behind Cyber Attacks, told Saga Money there are often clear signs you can spot:
“If a message is unexpected, if it makes you feel something – like sympathy for someone or that you’re missing out on something, and if it asks you to do something – like click on a link, provide personal information [or pay money], these are the big red flags,” she says.
The most popular WhatsApp scams are often quite similar, and will surge in popularity from time to time – so knowing the signs is the best way to protect yourself.
The ‘Hi Mum’ scams – also known as ‘friend in need’ scams - are still being attempted years after they first emerged, despite high-profile campaigns designed to raise awareness.
They can come out of the blue and are clever enough to seem like they’re from a child, sibling or close friend.
It will often start with a message that pulls on the heartstrings. They will often say their phone’s broken or been replaced, that they can’t pay a bill, and ask you to transfer money.
In 2022, Action Fraud said this scam managed to convince people to give £1.5m to criminals – so always be incredibly wary if someone close sends you a message that doesn’t seem quite right.
Jackie, 65, came very close to sending nearly £1,000 to a scammer claiming to be her son two weeks ago, but spotted something wasn’t quite right in time.
“My son was moving house, and I got a message from an unknown number saying ‘Hi mum, this is my new number’. I asked if it was him by name, and he said it was... before asking for my help as he couldn’t access his online account until the next day and desperately needed to pay a bill of just under £1,000.
“As he was moving house, it made more sense as a request. I said I’d help, and I was sent bank details of someone called ‘Jamie Wilson’ to pay into and we began to prepare to send the money.
“At this point, I wanted to check he was OK, and asked him to call, but he said he was in a bad signal area – he did call but it was crackly and then just cut off. This happened twice.
“Then I started to get messages asking ‘is this done yet?’ - they came quickly (six in all). Thankfully, we felt this was suspicious and phoned my son on his ‘old’ number, where he confirmed it wasn’t him.
“I’ve no idea how he got my number, but it was horrible how natural it seemed.”
Two-factor authentication is where, upon signing into your WhatsApp account, you’ll be texted a six-digit code. This prevents people from just randomly entering phone numbers into WhatsApp and getting access to your account.
You’ll then use this code to confirm your identity and start messaging, so be wary if you receive a six-digit code that you’re not expecting.
You might get a notification from an unknown number saying they accidentally sent the code to your phone, or even from a known contact – they could have been hacked using the same scam.
They’ll explain the ‘mistake’ and ask you to send ‘their’ code – at which point they’ll gain access to your account, lock you out and then try the same thing with people in your own contact list.
Or worse, they’ll pretend to be you, gaining the trust of others and stealing their money or identity.
In other variants of this scam, sometimes you might get a message from someone who belongs to a group chat you’re in, saying there’s a video call happening and asking for the code you’ve been sent ‘to let you join’.
“If you receive a suspicious message (even if you think you know who it’s from), calling or requesting a voice-note is the fastest and simplest way to check that someone is who they say they are,” a WhatsApp spokesperson told us.
This scam starts with what seems to be an innocent, friendly message from a random individual – such as ‘Hey George, it’s Anne – it's been a while!’
Once you’ve texted back saying they’ve got the wrong number, the fraudster will attempt to pull you into conversation, preying on loneliness or people just looking for love.
As you send messages back and forth, they play a long game – sometimes months at a time - eventually trying to coerce you into sending money or investing in a cryptocurrency scheme. A security researcher played along with one of these scams, and found such attempts at deception happening in an astonishingly brazen way.
Dr Barker says: “This is a horrible scam with a horrible name – Pig Butchering – so called because scammers are trying to get the whole hog and get you to hand over large amounts of money.
“They won’t generally ask for money directly but may point you to an investment website that looks really convincing, but is completely fake.”
Be warned that these scams are not limited to WhatsApp, and can come as a normal text message too. They’re often perpetrated by organised gangs, gaining millions of pounds in investments having gained trust.
This scam involves a fraudster posing as a recruitment agent who may tell you that they’ve got your job application or have found a great post for you. They may even offer you a job abroad.
Dr Barker says: “These scams can start on WhatsApp, but also on a social media platform or even a legitimate job site. They’ll ask to move to WhatsApp to chat to you about it.
“They’ll then use the conversation to get your personal information for a job that doesn’t exist.”
Once the information has been gained, it can either be sold online or, in worse cases, used to steal your identity, depending on what they’ve managed to glean from you.
The WhatsApp gold scam is an older scheme, but one that’s still alluring: promising you a special download that gives you an upgraded experience on the messaging platform.
Dr Barker explains: “This is the idea that there is another version of WhatsApp that is more exclusive, that celebrities use, playing into people’s fear of missing out. “But there is no WhatsApp Gold and if you click the link they send you, you're downloading malware – malicious software that will infect your device and steal your personal information.”
If you get a message that doesn’t seem right, don’t assume it’s OK. Never feel embarrassed to check if someone is legitimate, as the danger of getting it wrong is far worse.
Any person you meet on online should always be viewed with a level of suspicion until you can verify who they are – no matter how convincing or trustworthy they seem.
Scams aren’t always obvious straight away either – cybercriminals are often happy to play the long game by gaining your trust.
If you, or one of your loved ones, is receiving messages that seem like they could be a con, report them to the police at Action Fraud. If you want more information, WhatsApp has its own advice on how to stay safe.
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