A man from mainland China had his WhatsApp hacked and fell victim to a phishing scam through the app, losing RMB1 million.
The scammer hacked into the man’s account, impersonating an acquaintance.
According to the Judiciary Police, the man’s WhatsApp account received a notification on Jan. 5, stating that the account had failed a security auto-check and would be permanently frozen unless he clicked a link to re-verify.
The victim, believing the link to be authentic, clicked on it and entered the verification code sent to his phone. He was then able to use the application normally, unaware of any irregularities.
On Jan. 14, he received a transfer request via WhatsApp from a “friend.” As the two had engaged in financial transactions before, the victim did not verify the request and followed the instructions to transfer a total of RMB1 million, sending multiple transactions to various mainland bank accounts.
After the victim was contacted for more transfers, he became suspicious and contacted his real friend via WeChat. It was then confirmed that the real friend had never initiated a transfer request. Ricaela Diputado
No Comments