WhatsApp Users Alert: Fraudsters Using WhatsApp To Steal Your Money

It has come to light that fraudsters are now targeting users of famous WhatsApp messenger app and looking to rob them off their hard-earned money. This is being carried out through the QR codes fraud in which fraudsters share their QR codes generally on WhatsApp for making payments and thereafter lure the victim to transfer money.

Modus operandi: In QR Code Scam, a fraudster would send a message to the WhatsApp user giving him information about the lucky winner, or any other alluring offer which is hard to refuse. Once, the WhatsApp user responds, they ask the WhatsApp user to scan the QR code send on their WhatsApp. Once, the user scans the given QR code, he or she becomes a victim of this QR Code Scam as QR Code is for payments only, not for receiving money", said Amit Dubey, a Cybercrime expert, when detailing how such a fraud is executed.

Other than the one detailed above there are other kinds of QR codes scam such as there can be a case in which the fraudster can affix his or her QR code in place of the vendor's QR code and all of the payment intended to be credited to the vendor's account may go to the fraudster's bank account instead.

Of late there has been witnessed a sudden spike in such frauds across the country. In most such cases of QR codes scam, fraudsters have targeted those individuals who have posted sales ad in the e-marketplace. Warning users of WhatsApp about such incidences, Hyderabad or Cyberabad police only recently issued an advisory saying that a QR code is for payment and not for receiving money.

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