18/01/2024
WHATSAPP users have been warned to be aware of a sophisticated news scam that takes control of your phone to steal money.
Figures show that the amount of money reported stolen from recruitment scam texts and WhatsApp messages have shot up from £20,000 to nearly £1million in the past year.
The City of London Police say there has been an eightfold increase in the number of people reporting these scams to Action Fraud.
Figures from the force reveal 15 people reported being scammed out of £20,040 by Action Fraud in 2022.
In 2023, though, 126 people reported £977,581 being stolen.
The force’s temporary commander, Oliver Shaw, says this could just be the “tip of the iceberg” as this type of fraud is “hugely underreported”.
Criminals use recruitment scams to lure their victims with promises of extra work or income.
But instead of employment, they are conned into handing over their bank details, or the scammers take control of their phones to steal money.
Temporary commander Shaw said you need "a whole-system response across government, law enforcement and industry” in order to tackle fraud effectively.
He said: "Every report we receive from the public helps build a stronger picture of the problem, enabling us not only to investigate fraud more effectively but to take down the bank accounts, websites and phone numbers used by criminals."
An expert in the language and phrases fraudsters use to trick their victims says recruitment scams are a high-volume, multi-stage crime.
Dr. Lis Carter, a criminologist at Kingston University, told the BBC: "These text messages will only be relevant to a certain number of people... but it's a numbers game.
“Criminals only need a few people to respond, and the victims are self-selected.
"Fraudsters will take a victim through several stages—things you'd normally expect a HR department to be asking—name, address, date of birth, bank details.
"All of that stuff is valuable data in itself, so even if that case doesn't turn into fraud, it's valuable data they can sell on the dark web."
Activate these 4 WhatsApp settings to stop snoopers.
WhatsApp may be a pretty sure way to keep in contact with your friends, but there are extra steps you can take for added privacy.
Setup two-factor authentication Two-factor authentication is very useful to have setup on any device that contains personal data like photos and messages. It just means adding an extra security step before you can access an app or device.
Open WhatsApp, go to Settings, and then click "Two-Step Verification".Then click "Enable" and enter a PIN of your choice. This is useful if your phone is hacked or if someone knows the password to your handset but not your WhatsApp PIN.
Turn off reading receipts This step is useful if you don't want people to know you've read their message. It just means if you do open a message, the person who sent it won't see two blue ticks to indicate you've seen it.
Go to Settings, click "Privacy," and then turn the "Read Receipts" toggle off. This means you won't be able to see if other people have read your messages. Bear in mind that read receipts are always visible in group chats.
WhatsApp has a Face ID feature, which means you can only unlock the app with your own face.To turn it on, go to Settings, click "Privacy,, and then "Screen Lock".
You'll see a "Require Face ID" toggle that you can turn on and off. There's also a message that explains: "When enabled, you'll need to use Face ID to unlock WhatsApp. "You can still reply to messages from notifications and answer calls if WhatsApp is locked. "Make your encryption secure.
WhatsApp is already encrypted, so your messages are already pretty safe. This means only you and the chat you're sending messages to can see the conversation, unless they happen to be 'screenshotting'.
However, if you back up your chats to the cloud, then they aren't protected in the same way. Law enforcement could ask Google or Apple for access to your backed-up chats, and there's a chance they could be handed over.
Alternatively, a hacker could enter your cloud backup. To turn off cloud backup, go to Settings, then click "Chats", "Chat Backup," and "Auto Backup," and then turn the toggle off.
