This WhatsApp setting could help protect you from online scams

In a new scam that has come to light, conmen have been found to be using WhatsApp to dupe people of their money. Here’s how they go about it, and a little primer on how you can protect yourself against the same.

How are these scams carried out?

The perpetrators’ modus operandi is simple. They call victims posing as representatives of their mobile service provider and tell them about connectivity and voice quality issues that users may experience on a 5G network. Under the pretext of rectifying the same, the conmen then ask their victims to dial *123# followed by their 10-digit number. What this actually does though, is divert users’ calls to the conmen’s numbers. Following this, the perpetrators download WhatsApp on their phone, and log into the WhatsApp account of their victims, via an OTP they receive telephonically.

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After this, they set up two-step verification on the victim’s WhatsApp accounts, effectively locking them out of their accounts and taking complete control. Once this is done, the perpetrators’ reach out to people on the victim’s contact list, asking for money. Due to the fact that the victim’s profile picture, their number, etc. is actually genuine, many people whom the perpetrators contact, do not bother to verify with the victims first and end up losing their money.

How can two-step verification be used to prevent such frauds?

To prevent something similar from happening to oneself though, two-step verification is actually the very mechanism that can ensure the same. What two-step verification does is, it asks users to enter a pin they’d set previously, whenever they install WhatsApp on a new device through their old account. This ensures that the perpetrators are unable to access WhatsApp on their devices through victims’ accounts. This in turn ensures victims’ accounts cannot be used to implicate them in any unlawful activities, and that people on their contact list are not duped either.

How to turn on two-step verification on one’s WhatsApp account

Here’s how to turn on two-step verification on your WhatsApp account:

1. Open WhatsApp Settings, and tap on “Account”

2. Select “Two-step verification”

3. Tap on the option that says “Turn on” at the bottom, following which, you will be asked to enter a six-digit PIN of your choice. Enter and re-enter the same, to confirm it

4. From here, you will be asked to provide an email address you have access to at all times. This is so that instructions for resetting your pin can be sent to it, in case you end up forgetting the same

5. After entering and re-entering the email address to confirm the same, tap on “Save”

6. Following this, a screen that says “Two-step verification has been turned on” should pop up. Here, tap on “done,” and you’re all set!

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All one must remember, is that WhatsApp has no way of verifying the details of the email address one provides for recovery. Therefore, one must ensure that the account associated with that email address is secure and accessible to only them, at all times.

Other steps one can take to protect themselves against such scams

Besides activating two-step verification on their accounts, one must also remember to log out of, and remove all WhatsApp data from their previous smartphone. If one doesn’t do this, the same could still be used for unlawful activities. Furthermore, any time one installs WhatsApp on a new device, their privacy settings will be reverted to the standard settings. Therefore, it is important to set the same again, and also to periodically check and update their WhatsApp and device security settings regularly.

In addition to this, mobile service providers will generally never ask one for their personal details, whether verbally, or via an input anywhere. Therefore, it is best to avoid the same to protect oneself from online scams.