How Your Whatsapp can be hacked through one Phone Call

WhatsApp is one of the most widely used messaging programs on the planet, and it is no stranger to frauds of many kinds. A new scam has surfaced that can take control of your WhatsApp account with just a phone call.

Rahul Sasi, the CEO of cyber security firm CloudSEK, confirmed the news. According to him, victims of this WhatsApp exploit receive a phone call from an attacker who persuades them to dial “*6710 digit number> or 40510 digit number>.” Your WhatsApp account is logged out and the hacker has complete control within minutes of contact.

Working

Sasi continues by explaining what happens behind the scenes. According to him, the number the attacker forces you to dial is a call forwarding request for one of India’s most popular cellular service providers, Jio or Airtel. The attacker is just trying to persuade you to redirect your call to a phone number that they control.

The attacker begins WhatsApp’s account registration procedure for your phone number and selects the option to get the One Time Password (OTP) via phone call after the call is redirected. However, because your phone is on, the OTP gets transmitted to the hacker’s phone, allowing him to gain access to your account.

The scam is common in India, but it can be used anywhere because every country and service provider uses the same service request number.

We encourage our readers to be wary of any suspicious WhatsApp calls or messages. It is preferable to ignore such calls or messages and to alert others if you receive something similar.