Police warn of fraudulent messages spreading via WhatsApp

The Police Directorate has warned of fraudulent messages that citizens have received today and in previous days via messaging applications, and especially messages received via WhatsApp, as the sender's intention is to compromise and take over the user's account.

According to the Police Directorate, the scam most often occurs automatically, with the message arriving from an already downloaded and compromised account of a person in your contact list, thus creating a false sense of trust.

"The message usually asks for alleged help, such as voting for a friend's child in a scholarship competition or similar campaign, with a suspicious link attached (e.g. the domain supervote.life). Users who open such a link are redirected to a fake website where, under the pretext of logging in or confirming their identity, they are asked to enter their phone number and verification codes received via SMS or the application itself," it was announced.

By entering the verification code, it was explained, attackers take complete control of the user's WhatsApp account.

"The account owner loses access to their profile, while the compromised account is used to further automatically send identical fraudulent messages to all contacts in the address book. Depending on the circumstances, attackers can gain access to communications, photos, documents and other data from the device, which poses a serious risk to the security and privacy of users."

To protect against such scams, citizens are recommended to:

• do not open suspicious links, even when the message comes from a familiar person or family member;
• never enter verification codes, phone numbers or other sensitive information on unverified websites;
• the authenticity of such requests should be verified through another communication channel, by call or direct message to the sender;
• activate Two-Step Verification in the WhatsApp application settings; and
• They regularly check the list of connected devices and immediately remove any devices they don't recognize.

"If you suspect that your WhatsApp account has been compromised or that you have been the target of this type of fraud, immediately try to re-register your account and inform your contacts to ignore any messages they receive from your number. Although it has been noted that taking over WhatsApp accounts is currently only being used to further spread these fraudulent messages, if you happen to have material damage to your property because you entered codes and other data on a fraudulent link, please report the matter to the Police Department," it was announced.