WhatsApp scam: Kolkata woman's account hacked, fraudsters ask for money from her phone contacts

WhatsApp scam: A 45-year-old woman from Kolkata got in touch with the Cyber Cell to report that her WhatsApp account had been compromised, and that the scammers are pretending to be her and messaging her contacts asking for money.

WhatsApp scam Kolkata woman account hacked fraudsters ask for money from her phone contacts check details gcw

Team Newsable

First Published Jun 11, 2023, 1:43 PM IST | Last Updated Jun 11, 2023, 1:43 PM IST

WhatsApp scams are increasing quickly, and it appears like there is no way to prevent them from occurring. Every day that goes by, more and more innocent individuals lose money as a result of falling for scams. A woman in Kolkata was recently the victim of WhatsApp fraudsters. They hacked her account first, took full control of it, and then sent messages to her contacts requesting money. They pretended to be her and said that she needed money to get to Kolkata since she was in trouble.

The 45-year-old woman contacted the cyber cell and stated that her WhatsApp account had been hacked, according to media report. She also disclosed that she had been sending repeated texts requesting money to everyone on her contact list. The complainant stated that the Wi-Fi at her home had stopped working over the past weekend. She filed a complaint with her telecom service provider a couple of days later.

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On June 5, she received a call on her mobile device from a person posing as a telecom company official. The caller instructed her to dial a code beginning with 401, the same code used to transmit calls and messages, as well as a second set of digits starting with 67. She was promised that doing this will fix her Wi-Fi problems.

She did, however, learn that her WhatsApp account had been hacked on Wednesday. Several people on her contact list received a message from her, stating that she was in trouble and needed money to travel to Odisha.

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The Kolkata Police recently took to Facebook to warn the public about this new threat. The warning message stated, "WhatsApp Getting Hacked! If you receive this kind of message and if any person on your WhatsApp contacts list (even if known) asks you to forward the same, please don't do so."

"This is how scammers gain access to your WhatsApp account. Such complaints have been made, and we need your help," it added.

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