Beware: there's a scam involving hacked WhatsApp accounts

Has someone on your contact list asked you for your WhatsApp account verification code recently?

Watch out, a scammer may be making use of your contact's compromised WhatsApp account to make that request, the police said in a press release on Wednesday (April 18).

Once scammers get hold of the SMS verification codes, victims would lose access to their WhatsApp accounts.

Another variant of the scam reported overseas saw scammers deceiving people on the victims' WhatsApp contact lists.

They were asked to send the passwords of gift cards they had purchased to the scammers, which allowed them to sell the gift cards online.

The police advise members of the public to adopt the following crime prevention measures:

• beware of unusual requests received over Whatsapp even if they were sent by their contacts;
• call their friend personally to verify the authenticity of the request;
• protect their WhatsApp account by enabling the app's 'two-step verification' feature

For scam-related advice, call the National Crime Prevention Council's anti-scam helpline at 1800-722- 6688 or visit www.scamalert.sg.

a1admin@sph.com.sg