CyberSecurity M’sia warns of impersonation, scam activities on WhatsApp

KUALA LUMPUR: CyberSecurity Malaysia (CSM) has issued a warning regarding scammers exploiting the WhatsApp application for impersonation activities and deceiving victims into transferring money.

In a post on Facebook, CSM said there were fraudulent activities using the application, with the perpetrator posing as someone known to the victim before sending a link and asking the victim to click on it.

The victim will subsequently lose access to their WhatsApp account once they click on the link.

“The scammer will then take over the hacked WhatsApp account and use the victim’s identity to commit fraud. They will impersonate the victim by sending messages to the victim’s contacts via the WhatsApp account,” according to the statement.

It also said that scammers would claim that the victim is in an emergency and needs financial aid or a loan to help them out of the crisis and promise to make repayment.

In this situation, the victim’s contacts would be misled into believing their friend sent the message and end up losing money.

“We advise people not to click on any link received via WhatsApp. Do not make any money transfer until you have confirmed and verified with your contacts,” it said.