PUBLISHED ONFebruary 10, 2026 7:29 AMBYSean LerIf you find yourself receiving WhatsApp messages from your contacts asking you to vote for a "friend's" child at a dance competition, do not click any links in the message, or you may lose access to your WhatsApp account.
The scam variant was revealed by the police in a news release on Tuesday (Feb 10), following reports from members of the public.
According to the police, victims would receive WhatsApp messages from known contacts asking them to vote for a "friend's" child at a dance competition.
The message would contain a clickable link directing the victims to a fake voting website.
They would then be asked to "verify" their votes by providing their mobile number for a One-Time Password (OTP) by scanning a QR code.
Those who enter the OTP or scan the QR code on their WhatsApp accounts were actually authorising the scammers' devices to access their accounts, the police said.
Victims would only realise that their accounts were compromised after their contacts informed them of unusual requests — when scammers drop a message to their contacts to enact the same account compromise ruse or request money.
"While no losses have been reported so far, the police would like to remind members of the public to never scan QR codes on suspicious websites or provide sensitive information such as OTPs to anyone," the police said.
It added that members of the public can secure their WhatsApp accounts by removing unknown devices linked to their WhatsApp accounts.
WhatsApp users are also advised to enable the two-step verification on their accounts through the settings page.
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