Scams are becoming more complex, and worst of all, because of new technologies, they are also increasingly personalized. This means that some users, who generally distrust the mass emails that pirates send, end up falling into an era that, apparently, has been created with him in mind. This is what the Civil Guard in networks these days, of a new scam that, if we fall for it, can be very expensive.
WhatsApp It is the most used messaging platform in the world. And, for this reason, hackers are always looking for a way to take control of their victims’ accounts, since in it they can find very valuable information and, in addition, they can easily impersonate the identity of any person.
This is what a group of hackers is looking for with this massive new scam that is taking place in Spain. As the Civil Guard tells us on Twitter, anyone can receive, at any time, a WhatsApp, from an unknown number, like the following.
Civil Guard 🇪🇸
@Civil Guard
If you receive an SMS like this
DON’T ANSWER IT!!!
It is the message with the verification code for the installation. If you provide it to a third party, they will control your account on their device and with it, access to all your groups and contacts.
#NoPiques https://t.co/oDjhe9W2S4February 11, 2023 • 18:00
In this message, as we can see, the person asks us for a 6-digit code that, in theory, has been sent to us by SMS by mistake. We can be good people and give it to him so he can get on with his life and not cause trouble. However, if we do, we have screwed up.
This is a WhatsApp verification code
The SMS that has reached our mobile is the verification code of our WhatsApp account. Hackers have gotten hold of our mobile number, one way or another, and what they are doing is try to enter our WhatsApp.
If we send you the code by SMS, we are giving you access to our entire WhatsApp account. And, if they do, they will have access to all the chats and all the groups in which we participate. And not only that, but they can also write to any of our contacts posing as us.
How to identify the scam
Although the scams seem personalized, if you look closely they are usually very easy to identify. These are usually written in Spanish, since they perfectly know the speech of their potential victims. However, the number from which they write to us is usually foreign. In this example, the prefix +92 indicates that they have written to us from Pakistan.
@guardiacivil They tried it with me in July of last year, they even insisted… hahaha https://t.co/KA0OGyTsJ8
February 11, 2023 • 19:38
These types of WhatsApp scams are not new, but this 2023 they are gaining popularity. We can even see some insistence from the pirates that we provide the code.
In case of having stung, what we must do is try to log out of all devices as soon as possible from the WhatsApp options. Although the hackers may have gone ahead and kicked us out of our own account already. In that case, what we have to do is re-login with our mobile on the messaging platform. Thus, by doing so, we will leave them without service.
And, very importantly, since WhatsApp now supports multi-accounts, we will have to force the logout of all instances to expel them and avoid falling for the scam again.
