What happened when I sent a Scammer his own message using a different temporary WhatsApp account? What did I see using his Phone's Rear Camera?
WhatsApp Messaging Scams You Should Be Aware Of
Scammers have been using WhatsApp to communicate with their victims for years now. A lot of times, they'll send photos of money in messages. But what do they need these photos for? To make sure the victim thinks he/she just won big money.Once people start thinking about getting rich quickly, no matter how much sense it makes, they may start doing things that lead to them losing their money. And unfortunately, scammers know this. They've been able to con people out of thousands of dollars without even trying.
In India, there is an ongoing WhatsApp KYC (Know Your Customer) scam that misuses MTNL's (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) name and logo to con people.
The message contains MTNL.Ltd, written on top, with 'Important Notice' below in brackets. The message starts with informing the users that their MTNL SIM KYC has been suspended. And so their SIM card will be blocked within the next 24 hours. Then they ask the user to call them immediately to avoid problems.
It is followed by a customer care number and a few other minute details like a signature of the alleged official to make the message look authentic.
Whatsapp MTNL KYCs are fake WhatsApp messages sent by scammers to make the customers do KYC updation so that they can retrieve their confidential information.
And that's precisely what makes WhatsApp scammers so dangerous. They're so good at playing off the emotions of others that it doesn't take long for them to convince their targets that they're legitimate. And once a person falls for a scam, it's almost impossible for him/her to find a way out of it.
What happened when I sent the same message to him using a temp WhatsApp number?
Although I received such messages before, however today I happened to receive similar messages 2 times.
While one of the numbers seems to be instantly disconnected as you can see from the image above there isn't any delivery confirmation (i.e. no double ticks), the other number, however, did receive the message (notice the double ticks in the image below).
Now it seems this guy has Turned Off the read receipts option due to which even if he had seen these messages we can't see the blue ticks.
Why am I sure he must have seen the messages? Well due to two reasons
- I made a video call to him
- He seems to have blocked my number or disconnected his own (notice his last seen status)
These guys seem to quickly dispose of their fake WhatsApp numbers to not to get caught.
What did I see through the Scammer's phone camera?
When I made a video call to him he was smart enough to disable/block his front camera but switched to the rear camera. Now what I saw through that is what you can see too in the video below.
Watch it on YouTube
As you can see he seems to be enjoying nature while making fraudulent attempts on the innocents through WhatsApp. Seems like perfect weather and location for such scammers to scam people while doing their picnic.
However, people can avoid falling prey to these kinds of scams if they stay vigilant. Delhi Police has also shared some of the best practices to be vigilant of such scams.
However, people can avoid falling prey to these kinds of scams if they stay vigilant. Delhi Police has also shared some of the best practices to be vigilant of such scams.
Best Practices to Avoid Getting Scammed Through WhatsApp
- Don't share personal information about your personal account and bank details etc. to anyone through phone or any other means
- Do not make the mistake of clicking on any unverified links
- Do not download any suspicious apps
- MTNL does not carry out KYC verification over WhatsApp, hence you should not reply to such misleading messages
In reply to the Delhi Police's warning tweet, several Twitter users wrote that they did receive a similar fake message from MTNL regarding KYC updation. Some of the users also shared the sender's numbers. But then it is quite likely that scammers have access to many different numbers to send such fake messages.
KYC scams are one of the most common scams used by such scammers and cyber criminals to dupe innocent citizens. Telecom service providers have warned subscribers against such KYC frauds. There are various modes that Scammers use to send such fraudulent KYC messages and these include SMS, WhatsApp, and calls.
KYC scams are one of the most common scams used by such scammers and cyber criminals to dupe innocent citizens. Telecom service providers have warned subscribers against such KYC frauds. There are various modes that Scammers use to send such fraudulent KYC messages and these include SMS, WhatsApp, and calls.
In this digital world, you must make yourselves aware of such instances and possibilities and never share your details or click on any unverified links or download any apps from just anywhere to avoid such occurrences to appear.
You may be interested in checking How to Scan APK File Online
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