09/03/2016
According to messages that are being passed around via WhatsApp and social media, you can get hold of a new WhatsApp feature called ‘Ultra-Light Wifi’ by clicking a link. The messages claim that WhatsApp has just launched the feature and urge you to click to activate the feature and thereby access ‘Free 3G Internet wherever you go’.
But, alas, the messages are not associated with WhatsApp in any way whatsoever, and you certainly will not get the promised feature if you click the link as requested. Instead, the links lead to a suspect website that claims that you must invite 15 friends before you can complete the activation and get the ‘free wi-fi signal’. This step ensures that you promote the bogus messages on behalf of the scammers who created them and expose your friends to the scam as well.
If you invite fifteen friends as requested and then click the ‘Activation’ button, you will then be taken to a second page that claims that you must prove that you are human by completing one or more online surveys. The page will include a list of links to various surveys.
The survey sites will ask you to supply your name and contact details as a prerequisite for participating. However, fine print on the survey pages will state that, by participating, you are in fact agreeing to share your information with third-party site sponsors and online marketing companies. Thus, you will soon begin receiving unwanted and annoying phone calls, text messages, letters, and emails peddling various products and services.
And, even after completing the surveys as requested, you will still not get to activate the promised ‘feature’. At this point, you may be urged to download other ‘free’ apps. But, these apps may contain malware of various types.
The scammers who create these campaigns earn commissions via dodgy affiliate marketing schemes each time somebody fills in a survey or downloads an app. This scam is similar to an earlier campaign that claimed that WhatsApp users could immediately activate a new voice-calling feature by following a link. Again, the link opened a bogus website that tricked people into spamming their friends, filling in suspect surveys, and downloading malicious apps.
If you receive one of these messages, do not follow any links that it contains. and, let the friend who sent you the message know that they have been caught by a scam.
