
Do not click on any links sent from the new number until you have confirmed it is a family member.Ĭall forwarding scams hit the headlines towards the end of 2022, but are undoubtedly still being used as a way to take control of a victim's WhatsApp account. How Do I Protect Myself? If you’ve been messaged by a family member claiming to have a new number, message their old number to confirm it is in fact them. Luckily, in this case, the scammer was thwarted. Similarly, the scammer then asked to be lent money, which immediately aroused suspicion. One member of the public that contacted by email said they'd received a convincing message from a scammer pretending to be their cousin, and that the scammer was even using their profile picture. Other people have had similar experiences with WhatsApp messages purporting to be from family members. By the time my grandfather realized something was wrong, he’d already sent over $2,800.” “The impersonator went on to ask my grandpa to make some payments for them, claiming they needed the money that day and promising to pay him right back. “My family was on vacation at the time the scammer sent the message, so it seemed more plausible to my grandpa that his son (my dad) would be using a temporary number,” she explained. Jennifer Mcllveen, Editor of, learned her grandfather recently fell victim to this kind of WhatsApp scam, after receiving the following message: “Hi dad, my other phone crashed so hence the new temporary number.
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In this guide, we also cover how to avoid WhatsApp scamsand what you should do if you receive an unsolicited WhatsApp message. This page is regularly updated to include the latest scams on WhatsApp, and currently includes: WhatsApp scams in 2023 often prey on users through impersonation, emergencies, gifts, romance, jobs, authentication, banks, cryptocurrency, ecommerce, prizes, and broken phones. Some have used the platform to conduct AI voice cloning scamstoo, which are particularly prevalent in India. Last year, US citizens alone lost $770 million to social media scams – and in 2023, malicious actors are continuing to turn to WhatsApp to find their next victims. Unfortunately, the sheer size and global reach of the platform make WhatsApp scams commonplace, just like other social media.

WhatsApp is a huge social media platform, with over 2.7 billion accounts worldwide and over 75 million users in the United States.
