KUALA LUMPUR: Beware of scammers exploiting the WhatsApp application for impersonation activities and deceiving victims into transferring money, CyberSecurity Malaysia has warned the public.
It said there were fraudulent activities using the application, with the perpetrator posing as someone known to the victim before sending a link and asking the victim to click on it.
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The victim will subsequently lose access to their WhatsApp account once it was done.
“The scammer will then take over the hacked WhatsApp account and use the victim’s identity to commit fraud.
“They will impersonate the victim by sending messages to the victim’s contacts via the WhatsApp account,” CyberSecurity Malaysia said in a post on Facebook, Bernama reported.
It said scammers would inform the contacts that the victim is in an emergency and needs financial aid or a loan to help them out of the crisis and promises to make a repayment.
In such a situation, the victim’s contacts will be misled and believe their friend sent the message and end up losing money.“We advise people not to click on any link received via WhatsApp. Do not make any money transfer until you have confirmed and verified with your contacts,” it said.
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