Scammers began hacking inactive accounts of Russians on WhatsApp

According to Dmitry Chernov, director of customer service and retail business services at VimpelCom, attackers can change the profile picture to the company logo to inspire trust.

“The calls come through the messenger from the victim’s number, which is unknown about the hacking, making it difficult to identify the fraud. As a result, mass calls may be made from a hacked account,” warns Chernov.

The mobile operator’s rapid response team clarified that the majority of victims of this type of fraud are elderly people whose children or grandchildren installed the messenger. To protect against fraudulent activity, users should verify linking their accounts to third-party devices, the company recommends.

To do this, you need to go to Messenger settings and select “Linked devices”. If there are unknown devices among them, you need to click the “Sign out of account” button.

• At the end of September, Kaspersky Lab found a dangerous virus in a modification of WhatsApp. It was found in an Android application that was not downloaded from the Google Play Market. Programs with this virus were also detected in the official store.
• In July, American businessman and billionaire Elon Musk published information about the dangers of using the WhatsApp messenger. He stated that the courier “is not sure.”