Police flag variant of WhatsApp takeover scam, urge public not to share verification codes

SINGAPORE — Never share WhatsApp verification codes with others, cautioned the Singapore Police Force on Wednesday (May 29) as it flagged a new type of WhatsApp takeover scam that has made the rounds overseas.

The police have, so far, not received reports here of this variant of the scam.

But they gave details of how the scammers have gone about cheating others:

• After taking over a victim’s WhatsApp account, the scammers post a fake screenshot of a WhatsApp verification code in chat groups using the account. They do so under the guise of alerting chat group members to WhatsApp account takeover scams.

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  At the same time, using another device, the scammers would attempt to log into the WhatsApp accounts of the other members in the chat group.

• The members would then each receive WhatsApp verification codes on their own device.

• The scammers would try to lure the members to post screenshots of their verification codes in the chat group to share that they are experiencing the same situation.

• The scammers would then use the verification codes to take over the WhatsApp accounts.

Such scams have been reported in Hong Kong, where hundreds of individuals have been duped. According to a report by the South China Morning Post last month, the victims were tricked into buying point cards for online games, and were promised that they would make a profit by selling them.

Besides not sharing their WhatsApp account verification codes with others, the public is also advised to:

• Beware of unusual requests received over WhatsApp from both contacts and strangers.

• Individuals should call their friends to verify the authenticity of the request. They should not do so through the social media platform as the account may have been taken over by scammers.

• The public should also protect their WhatsApp accounts by enabling the two-step verification function, under "Account" in the "Settings" tab of WhatsApp. This feature means that any attempt to verify their phone number on WhatsApp must be accompanied by the six-digit PIN that users created.

• Users whose WhatsApp account has been taken over may recover it by signing into WhatsApp using their phone number. To authenticate, they should enter the verification PIN sent to their phone. After that, the scammer using their account will be automatically logged out.

For scam-related advice, the public may call the anti-scam helpline at 1800 722 6688 or visit www.scamalert.sg.