Since the first, various kinds of fraud often occur. It's not over, now the times are advancing and technology is developing, the fraudsters are getting smarter in carrying out their actions.
If in the past we often encountered forms of fraud via SMS and telephone, now we are starting to penetrate through WhatsApp which is one of the most widely used chat applications.
The trick is quite clever, the founder and CEO of CloudSEK, Rahul Sasi said this new trick starts from the victim who will get a call from the perpetrator and ask him to call a certain number, after which the perpetrator can take over the user's account.
The victim will be asked to press **67* [10 digit number] or *405* [10 digit number]. Then, after calling the number, the WhatsApp account will automatically exit and the perpetrator has full control over the account.
"Once the hackers gain access to the account, they ask for money on the victim's contacts. In this way, the attacker spoofs the victim's WhatsApp contact even before the victim has realized that they have lost control of the account," said Rahul Sasi.
Rahul again said that if one of the things that made the victims not hesitate to call was the possibility because service providers around the world use numbers that start with the numbers 67 or 405.
"Because service providers around the world use numbers starting with 67 or 405, victims usually don't hesitate to call."
This mode is similar to taking over a WhatsApp account by asking for a One Time Password (OTP) code from the victim. This trick is also quite often used by fraudsters since some time ago.
How to Activate Two Step Verification on WhatsApp, so it doesn't get hijacked!
Therefore, it is better for you to protect your account by activating two-step verification on your WhatsApp account and setting a password or PIN to enter.
How to activate the 2-step verification feature is as follows:
1. Open the WhatsApp application
2. Tap the three dots icon in the upper right corner
3. Continue by going to the Settings menu
4. Select Account Settings
5. Click Two-step Verification
6. Next there will be a request to activate the feature with a PIN and press enable
7. Create a PIN by entering the six digits you want
8. WhatsApp will ask to enter the email address associated with the account. This is used when you want to change your PIN
You, that's how to prevent your account from being hijacked, so you don't get scammed by bad people.