Scams involving the takeover of WhatsApp accounts are resurfacing: Police

SINGAPORE — There has been a resurgence of scams involving the takeover of WhatsApp accounts, the police said on Tuesday (July 9).

In the first three months of this year, there have been at least 90 police reports made of WhatsApp accounts being taken over by scammers — and it is still happening lately.

Detailing the method in which this happens, the police said in a media statement that victims whose accounts have been taken over by a third party would receive a WhatsApp message from a supposed “friend”.

The friend or contact listed on their phone directory would ask for a six-digit verification code, which is a security feature in the set-up of a WhatsApp account.

HOW IT HAPPENS

In setting up a WhatsApp account, the user would receive an SMS containing a verification code.

The victims whose WhatsApp account has been compromised would receive an SMS with a verification code, even though they did not set up a new WhatsApp account.

The friend would then send them a WhatsApp message asking them for that code.

After the victim gives away the code, he or she would lose access to the WhatsApp account. 

HOW TO PREVENT IT

The police warned members of the public not to share their WhatsApp account verification codes with anyone. 

They should also be wary of unusual requests, even those sent by a friend or someone they know. 

Users should call their friend to verify if the request is authentic, but they should not call or contact the friend through any other social media platform, in case those might also have been compromised. 

To protect their WhatsApp accounts, the police are advising users to enable the “two-step verification” feature on the chat channel, which is found under the account's settings.

If the user’s WhatsApp account is taken over by a scammer, the user can recover it by signing in using his or her phone number and then authenticating it by entering the six-digit verification code which will be sent to the phone. 

After that, the scammer will be automatically logged out. 

Earlier in May, the police had notified online users to never share their WhatsApp verification codes with others, alerting them to a WhatsApp takeover scam that has made the rounds overseas. 

To provide information related to such scams, the public can call the police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or visit www.police.gov.sg/iwitness.

For scam-related advice, the public may call the anti-scam helpline at 1800 722 6688 or visit www.scamalert.sg.