WhatsApp Platform : Beware Of Piracy!

A fearsome scam is currently running rife on WhatsApp. “Good evening. How are you doing? Happy New Year to you. Please I need your assistance urgently!  Please can you help me send FCFA 75, 000 or 50,000 to someone now. I promise, I will refund it back to you, first thing tomorrow morning.” This message from supposedly WhatsApp friends is rampant in the platform nowadays. Crooks are currently using the messaging service of WhatsApp to set up scams aimed at stealing personal data, hacking into devices or, more simply, extorting money from friends and family members of their victims.
Last week, Mathias Mouende Ngamo, a journalist in Yaounde was one of the latest victims of WhatsApp hackers. Being a member of a media WhatsApp forum on climate change, Mathias Mouende Ngamo received a WhatsApp call at about 11: 00 a.m. from one of the members of the forum to join discussion via zoom on climate change at 6:00 p.m., the same day. Being a topic of interest, Mathias Mouende Ngamo decided to join the zoom discussion after verification to attest that the caller was effectively a member of the climate change forum. To effectively participate in the zoom chat, Mouende Ngamo needed a zoom link to join discussion. 10 minutes later, the caller sent a WhatsApp alert asking him to join another link using a six-digit code. Ngamo said he told the caller to send a proper zoom link and not an alert with figures. In the process, the caller asked him what the figures in the code was. Thereafter, the caller said he will send him a proper zoom link. That is how Mouende Ngamo gave hackers access to his private WhatsApp account without knowing. In less than one minute, he realised he could not have access to his account. The hackers had taken over his account sending messages to all his contacts indicating that he had some difficulties and needed money which they had to send to another mobile account. According to Mouende Ngamo, the hackers reached out to over 500 people in his contacts from different WhatsApp fora asking for money. It created immediate doubts in the minds of friends of Mouende Ngamo. Especially because they could not reach out to him via WhatsApp and t...