![]() Impersonation scams are one of the most common scams on WhatsApp. While their modus operandi continuously evolves, here are some of the most common scams you’ll encounter on the app. WhatsApp scammers use everything from social engineering to malicious links to defraud their victims. RELATED: WhatsApp Not Working? 9 Troubleshooting Tips Common Scams on WhatsApp Therefore consider any unanticipated windfall or giveaway you haven’t participated in a scam. You will never win a random prize, and no Nigerian prince or princess will give you their money for safekeeping. They can even imitate specific people’s writing styles and take on unique personas, so don’t trust someone just because they seem to have good grammar skills.Įveryone loves a giveaway, so it’s no surprise scammers will use free money and expensive tech to try luring you in. However, it’s worth pointing out that the rise of AI chatbots like ChatGPT has made it easy for anyone to generate messages with perfect English. Legitimate companies don’t typically make such mistakes as all their customer-bound communication is checked and double-checked. If you have received a message from a random number claiming to be a business or governmental agency, and it includes grammatical or spelling errors, it’s very likely a scam. Fraudsters often claim that your account could be blocked if you don’t perform a particular task, or you may face legal action.Įpidem of WhatsApp run scams. In a state of panic, the victims cannot think clearly and are more likely to make mistakes. Many of these numbers are often international. Unless a scammer has hijacked your family member’s or friend’s WhatsApp, scammers will contact you from an unknown number. And security- and privacy-wise, that’s just fine.Messages Originating From Unknown Numbers ![]() As I’ve commented in recent weeks, you can run WhatsApp and Signal in parallel, and as more of your contacts do the same, you’ll find yourself using Signal ever more and WhatsApp ever less. Putting this new report aside, you don’t need to rush to switch from WhatsApp over this year’s privacy backlash-nothing material has changed. ![]() Telegram's security model has received multiple criticisms by many cryptologists in the past.” “Use Signal,” Mishra confirms, telling me that “Signal REDACTs sensitive endpoints-sessionID, attachementDownloads etc-keeping all this in mind, Signal textsecure protocol is better than Telegram and WhatsApp.”Īs for those of you determined to stick with Telegram, Mishra advises you to “delete all your ‘Cloud Drafts’ under ‘Privacy and Security’ and limit your conversations.” In his view, “handling user privacy/data should not be that hard. The quality of Telegram’s e2ee can be improved.” And so, for the tens of millions of WhatsApp users making or contemplating that switch, the decision has suddenly become much easier-only Signal is the genuinely better alternative. Mishra says that “in the past, I've identified many other vulnerabilities in Telegram, which leaks sensitive information even with e2ee secret chat technology. According to its founder Pavel Durov, “Telegram became the most downloaded mobile app in the world in January 2021.” Where those users are ditching WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption for Telegram’s cloud-based solution, this is a backward move. ![]() The secret chat vulnerability is yet further evidence that switching from WhatsApp to Telegram, with its lack of support for default end-to-end encryption, is a bad idea. The fact these issues have been disclosed and patched is beside the point. Mishra says that Telegram patched both these issues with version 7.4, and paid him a bounty-the platform has not yet responded to my request for comment.
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