WhatsApp call from India: Who is behind the 091 number?

• More and more numbers from abroad are trying to reach you on WhatsApp, including an 091 number.
• Behind this is an attempted fraud from India, the aim of which could be extremely perfidious.
• If you activate a new function in Messenger, the telephone terror will come to an end.

With WhatsApp it can happen from time to time that strangers contact you. These anonymous senders are usually up to no good, as the grandchild trick shows. Currently it is mainly foreign contacts who do not write to you in the chat but instead try to call you.

At the forefront are numbers from India, which you can recognize by the country code +91. But no one dialed wrong. There is a new scam behind this.

The callers use the ping call technology. They give you a quick call and then immediately hang up, hoping that you’ll call back full of curiosity. They try to reach you with both voice calls and video calls.

The target of the scam

It is still unclear what exactly the callers’ intention with the scam is. Because while ping calls are about getting people to call back expensive numbers, calls via WhatsApp are free. This is probably simply an attempt to get in touch with you and gain your trust in order to prepare an attempt at fraud.

As SWR3 reports, the criminals could, for example, claim that you have been affected by identity theft, that your account details have been disclosed or that a large payment is outstanding.

The approach also has parallels to a nasty trick that fraudsters can use to take over your WhatsApp account.

You fall into the trap if you call the number back. This is intended to order call forwarding from your provider. If the trick works, your calls and text messages will be forwarded to a criminal number. They change the number in your WhatsApp account and hijack it.

Spam calls also from other countries

You don’t just get spam calls like this from India. In recent weeks, numbers from Brazil, Pakistan and other countries have also been used for the trick. In any case, we advise against answering or returning calls. You should also not come into contact with scammers on other messengers.

If you are annoyed by the constant calls, you should activate a new function in Messenger. It mutes calls from unknown numbers. You will still see these in your call list, but you will not be notified of them when they arrive. The tool has been available since June 2023.

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