A new scam is currently circulating on WhatsApp. With a single phone call, scammers can take control of your account. You should definitely be careful of a certain sequence of digits.
Anyone who receives messages from the Whatsapp messenger service that asks them to call a special number should be careful. As our editors have been warning since the end of May, this is a new scam that first appeared in India.
The fraudulent phone numbers can be recognized by a sequence of digits that are given with an asterisk. For Germany, the combination is **21*in previous cases – especially in India – were the phone number **67* or *405* prefixed.
Attention: Fraud by control commands
The characters, which initially appear harmless, are actually a so-called GSM code, which is used as a control command for smartphones. This allows fraudsters to set up call diversions and call blocks – and ultimately redirect all calls to the fraudsters’ devices.
What happens after a call to this number?
Criminals take over the WhatsApp accounts of their victims and deposit their own smartphone as a new device. Since a new WhatsApp device can usually be confirmed by a control call, verification by means of call forwarding is not a problem.
In addition, fraudsters legitimize themselves as users of the account and may also change the phone numbers so that they can gain full control over the account.
Users should therefore not call these numbers.
After fraud, the account is gone for now
This means: It will be difficult to get your own account back because fraudsters can now log in.
What is particularly dangerous about it is that fraudsters take advantage of the fact and send messages to their own contacts on behalf of the victims or spread the manipulated phone number to take over other accounts.
How can I protect myself from scammers?
Have you received such a message or do you want to protect yourself from the scams in advance? Then we have summarized some tips and tricks in this post to make your account more secure.
What’s more, WhatsApp itself explains what to do if your account has been stolen on its FAQ page.
