WhatsApp scam: 10 Key Things to Know About the Growing Hacking in Kochi: How Victims Are Losing Control

For instance, these hacking scams on WhatsApp have created a scare in the Kochi city. Scams begin when hackers gain access to a user's WhatsApp number through an OTP request. Once compromised, hackers can cause huge damage by gaining access to WhatsApp groups, contacts, and even personal messages.

1. How the Scam Works A recent case involves Ajith Kumar, a public relations professional from Kochi, who clicked on the share OTP sent to his phone after a hacker posing as the sender of the OTP asked him to do so. The hacker's request seemed legitimate because it came from another member of the group. However, by sharing the OTP, Ajith accidentally surrendered control of his WhatsApp account to the impersonators.

2. Scammers Demand UPI Payments: Usually, once the hacker gains access to the victim's WhatsApp, they send malicious messages. In Ajith's case, one message was sent from his hacked account that requested the urgent payment of Rs 10,000 through UPI to a Kochi bank's senior official. Thankfully, the recipient became suspicious and did not make the payment.

3. The Risk of Grouping Access Once hackers gain access to a WhatsApp account, they can see all the messages, pictures, and videos exchanged within the groups. This makes the fraud even more deadly since hackers are targeting all the contacts in the victim's WhatsApp groups. More aggressively, they can delete warnings that the account has been compromised, thus making it more difficult for the victim to warn others.

4. Complaint to Cyber Police: Ajith, along with many such victims, had lodged a complaint with the cyber police that has taken up investigation in the whole case. A cause of greater apprehension is that the hacker can easily access several accounts and cause financial loss. The police are actively working to retrieve Ajith's hacked WhatsApp account and threatened to escalate it to Meta if things do not work out.

5. WhatsApp Account Recovery Problem: Even after informing Meta, victims like Ajith struggled to recover his account. This means a major flaw in WhatsApp customer services which is frustrating victims and making them more susceptible.

6. Organized Nature of the Scam: What makes this scam particularly worrisome is the organized and systematic approach taken by the scammers. In most cases, hackers use automated scripts to hack numerous accounts, which makes the scale of the scam quite enlarged.

7. Meta's Actions for Users: The victims, though, approached Meta for help. Its slow response, however, made people wary. Meta needs to improve its processes to secure the WhatsApp account and enhance its processes supporting users whose accounts have been compromised.

8. Prevention Measures: Users can prevent WhatsApp hacking by being cautious about sharing OTPs and verifying the identity of anyone requesting sensitive information. Additionally, enabling two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security.

9. Increased Number of Victims: Increasingly hackers target the vulnerable users, thus the number of victims in Kochi and the surrounding regions is increasing day by day. The public has been advised to be alert and report suspicious activities or events to the authorities as soon as possible.

10. What's next for the victims: Cyber police are optimistic about retrieving Ajith's WhatsApp account, but the danger continues. While this scam spreads, users and authorities must be geared up to fight back against the growing number of WhatsApp hacks.