The scams in social networks They are very common. It is for this reason that there is already a computer term to name them: The phishing. This modality is a set of deception techniques that cyber scammers use to get closer to their victims. The first step is to gain their trust. The scammers They impersonate trusted people, companies or services, or simply impersonate people close to the victim. Once they have managed to establish contact they try to cheat and manipulate to the victims to get personal information fraudulently, which they then use to access your bank accounts.
The most used means to commit these crimes is WhatsApp, because it is the most used application worldwide. It has more than 2 billion active users. It is for this reason that the developers of Goal, the company that owns the application, have enabled a new feature that makes the job of blocking the accounts that we consider suspicious.
This measure responds to the new European Union Digital Markets Law, that forces the Big Tech (technological giants)as is the case of WhatsApp, to create a series of measures to improve the services they offer to the user.
Until today, when an attempt was received to ““phishing” or a message from “spam” On mobile the only way to block the contact was to open the application, but this will change from now on.
What is the new WhatsApp function?
The new function that WhatsApp offers has to do with the quick lock of suspicious messages and accounts without the need to open the app. This makes it easy to block any user who writes, whether or not they are in the contact book.
How does it work?
When you receive a suspicious message, with the screen locked, you will have to long press the notification. A window will appear offering two options: “Reply” or “Block”. If selected “Block”, The phone number will be blocked forever. In addition to this function, the possibility of report he contactwhich will help the application to take action against the swindler and to notify to the community that it is a suspicious account.
The most common scams
According to the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU), gives us a list of the most common scams that exist in messaging applications:
- The son's WhatsApp who has lost his cell phone, has changed his number and asks us for money.
- The WhatsApp verification message scamwhere they supposedly send you a code to verify your account, but in reality you give bad guys access to your account.
- False information in the name of OCU.
- He fake job offer scamwhere they offer you a job in which for 5 minutes you earn an entire month's salary.
- And the last one, a foreign person who comes from far away to pay a visit to Spain and he needs a guide for those days… a friend of a friend gave him your phone number…
WhatsApp will arrive with more news
- It will block the option to do catches screen at Profile pictures.
- Four new options will be added text format, this will make it easier to write and organize your messages, allowing you to communicate in a simpler way. This new feature will be very useful for group chats.
- The update of the “State”will allow you to see them without notifying to the other person. There will be a rectangular preview of the temporary posts at the top of the page. “News” and people will be able to see some of the published content, this way they will be able to get an idea of what their contacts have uploaded.