Whatsapp is the most widely used communication tool and messaging application across the world. With topping all the positive charts, WhatsApp has made some negative charts as well, and not surprisingly topping those too. It was revealed that Whatsapp is the most used app for phishing, pharming, and scamming individuals on every end of the world.
Kaspersky, primarily an antivirus software company, mobilized its cybersecurity units to figure out the conflicts of individuals that are being scammed and the means used by scammers to play with these individuals. The analysis of their team revealed some harrowing numbers for the communications giant as more than 89% of scams originated or resulted due to WhatsApp.
Further details were also provided by the team. These included the three countries where the scam occurred the most i.e. Russia, Brazil, and India which topped the leaderboard in respective order. They also brought forth that around 500 scams take place across the globe every day rounding up to billions in losses at the end of the year. With WhatsApp providing easier access to these scammers, the losses and frequency have skyrocketed from what it was in the past few years.
It was not only WhatsApp that was a go-to source for scammers, other platform like Telegram also filled in the feed at second place whereas the once widely used Viber came into third place with Google Hangouts filling the last place. However, these three applications contributed to less than 10% of the total scams that take place.
The cyber security team from Kaspersky searched through and through for the scams and studied them to come up with certain guidelines that would help to dismantle any phishing attempts from the scammers. It posted five simple yet efficient pointers to defuse any fishy stuff on WhatsApp from phishers.
The first of these pointers included checking any links sent from business or personal accounts for typos or extensions ending in any other than .com. The second of the suggestions included not sharing any link received in groups or email from an unknown third party to your friends. The third suggestion highlighted not revealing your credentials to any unknown third-party messaging system or another individual.
The fourth one included being aware of any foreign links from other individuals. This especially highlighted that links and attachments from peers and close friends are to be carefully reviewed before opening since these are the ones we presumptuously open without checking sidelining any idea that their account can also be hacked.
The last one included downloading an anti-virus software on both mobiles for WhatsApp application and laptop for WhatsApp for Windows so if any slipups do occur, this software can protect your phone and your precious data.
Via: FreePik
Kaspersky, primarily an antivirus software company, mobilized its cybersecurity units to figure out the conflicts of individuals that are being scammed and the means used by scammers to play with these individuals. The analysis of their team revealed some harrowing numbers for the communications giant as more than 89% of scams originated or resulted due to WhatsApp.
Further details were also provided by the team. These included the three countries where the scam occurred the most i.e. Russia, Brazil, and India which topped the leaderboard in respective order. They also brought forth that around 500 scams take place across the globe every day rounding up to billions in losses at the end of the year. With WhatsApp providing easier access to these scammers, the losses and frequency have skyrocketed from what it was in the past few years.
It was not only WhatsApp that was a go-to source for scammers, other platform like Telegram also filled in the feed at second place whereas the once widely used Viber came into third place with Google Hangouts filling the last place. However, these three applications contributed to less than 10% of the total scams that take place.
The cyber security team from Kaspersky searched through and through for the scams and studied them to come up with certain guidelines that would help to dismantle any phishing attempts from the scammers. It posted five simple yet efficient pointers to defuse any fishy stuff on WhatsApp from phishers.
The first of these pointers included checking any links sent from business or personal accounts for typos or extensions ending in any other than .com. The second of the suggestions included not sharing any link received in groups or email from an unknown third party to your friends. The third suggestion highlighted not revealing your credentials to any unknown third-party messaging system or another individual.
The fourth one included being aware of any foreign links from other individuals. This especially highlighted that links and attachments from peers and close friends are to be carefully reviewed before opening since these are the ones we presumptuously open without checking sidelining any idea that their account can also be hacked.
The last one included downloading an anti-virus software on both mobiles for WhatsApp application and laptop for WhatsApp for Windows so if any slipups do occur, this software can protect your phone and your precious data.
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