«Hi, I hope I’m not bothering you! I need your help for…». If you receive a WhatsApp message that has a incipit of this kind and which comes from numbers with foreign prefixes – for example +62 (Indonesia), +370 (Lithuania), +223 (Mali), +84 (Vietnam) – be careful, as you could fall victim to a cybercriminal. In fact, these days there are increasing reports of the new whatsapp scam of “friendly” messages from foreign numbers. These numbers, belonging to scammers, are used to steal private information and personal data. This type of scam began when on WhatsApp you could receive messages even from numbers not saved in your address book. The best way to defend yourself and counter the action of scammers is to block and report the numbers in question to the Meta messaging platform.
How the “Friendly” Scam Works on WhatsApp
The How the “Friendly” Scam on WhatsApp Works It is conceptually very simple. Using colloquial expressions and a confidential tone, such as «HI», «He how are you? ? or «Hi, sorry to bother you.», the scammer tries to gain the good graces of his potential victim by talking about topics that might interest him (for example job opportunities or “advantageous” investments) or he might invite him to open links or download applications, with the intent of stealing personal data or payment details.
In other cases still, as underlined by the president of the National Consumers Union Massimiliano Dona«the scammer pretends to be a relative in difficulty to access the data or money of the unfortunate person asking, for example, for an urgent phone top-up for phantom credit problems or a money transfer for urgent needs».
How to protect yourself from scam chats and report them
Luckily, defend yourself from scam chats It’s quite simple, as long as you learn to recognize them. In fact, to succeed, you just need to not respond to messages like the ones we described above (and the same goes if the requests come via spam phone calls).
We also recommend you to block the number that contacted you and report it to WhatsApp. When you receive a message from a number that is not in your contact list, the messaging app itself suggests it and, to do this, just open the “incriminated” conversation, tap Block (in the box It’s not in your contacts) and then press on the item Block and report. Next, indicate the reason for blocking and confirm everything by touching the wording Block.
