Stuttgart – It sounds harmless: a friend apparently inadvertently sends a six-digit code via SMS and asks the recipient to forward the number combination to him or her via WhatsApp. But behind it there is a smart fraud, as reported by the Lower Saxony State Criminal Police Office.
Because if the recipient forwards the code to the person via Whatsapp, they will initially lose their account. The combination of numbers is the security code for your own WhatsApp account. This makes it possible for the scammers to access the WhatsApp account.
Perpetrators try to outsmart other accounts
The perpetrators cannot read the old WhatsApp chats because they are encrypted. According to the police, the criminals often try to outsmart other WhatsApp accounts and send spam and malware to the contacts. But it is often not that harmless: The police speak of blackmail and fraud to participation in WhatsApp groups with illegal content, for example child pornography.
So what should I do if I fell for the scam?
The motto here is: act as quickly as possible! Once the fraud has been discovered, those affected can try to set up two-factor authentication. This can be found in the settings under Account and Verification in two steps: Here, the person concerned must first assign a six-digit PIN of their choice. This number combination should under no circumstances be identical to the code in the fraudulent SMS and must under no circumstances be passed on to anyone. You can then leave an email just in case.
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The police advise to be careful with unusual WhatsApp messages. If in doubt, you should ask the sender of the message by phone or another intelligence service. In addition, it makes sense to set up two-factor authentication.
