The messaging service stores a large amount of information about the user. The new strategy of cybercriminals
The Spanish Police warned of a new scam through WhatsApp. The trap is that a user received a message with the following text: “Hello. Sorry, I sent you a 6-digit code by SMS by mistake, can you pass it on to me? It’s urgent.”
From the Twitter account of the Civil Guard of Spain it was noted that this “is the message with the verification code for the installation. If you provide it to a third party will control your account on your device and with it, access to all your groups and contacts “.
It is the WhatsApp scam of the 6 digit code and it is still reaching many users today.
To carry it out, the offender, who has previously impersonated one of the affected contacts, downloads the WhatsApp application on his smartphone and enters the phone number of the account he wants to steal. The problem is that the app, to ensure that the person who wants to access is the true owner, send a six-digit verification code via SMS which is essential to access the platform.
And these digits, unless the smartphone has been previously infected with malware (computer virus), are not available to the cybercriminal.
So, the criminal only has deceive the rightful owner of the account for it to share the information with you. What it does is send a WhatsApp message to the victim impersonating for one of his contacts.
The “6-digit code” is the new trap for cybercriminals
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In this it tells you that you have mistakenly sent an SMS in which six numbers appear, and asks you to resend them.
Being a request from a person with whom, in theory, the victim has confidence, it is easy to fall into the trap and finish by sharing the information. Something that poses a great risk, both for the user and for the rest of their contacts.
The 6-digit scam is just one example among the variety of phishing tricks that cybercriminals use to steal a WhatsApp account. For a few months, a campaign in which attackers impersonate the application’s technical team has become very popular in order to deceive the victim and get them to share the keys.
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How to avoid it
The popularity of WhatsApp has made it the number one target of many organized cybercriminal networks. Therefore, we must take into account certain measurements prevention in the use of the application itself if you want to avoid prying eyes.
In addition to having an antivirus that ensures all of your digital security, not just that of a single device or a single app, It is important to have two-step authentication that, for example, WhatsApp gives.
On the other hand, if you use WhatsApp on a notebook or desktop PC, you have to make sure that the device comply the same requirements security of your mobile.
It should be borne in mind that the mobile screen locks up in a very short time. However, personal computers can remain on for hours without the need for a password or security authentication. Therefore, if the same measures are not used on the computer as on the mobile, if we leave our PC unattended for a few minutes, we are leaving the door opento an important breach at the security level.
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