WhatsApp is a clever name for a company that created a cross-platform mobile messaging app for your smartphone that allows you to send text messages, photographs, videos and audio.  It works with the systems for the iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia.  With more than three hundred million people already using WhatsApp, it is not surprising that it has become attractive to scammers seeking to use its popularity as a lure into a scam.  Presently there are a couple of scams involving WhatsApp presently occurring. One starts with a phony WhatsApp email.  If you click on the play button you are taken to a malicious website where you are further prompted to update your browser.  If you click on the links to update your browser what you will actually be doing is downloading malware on to your computer, smartphone or other electronic device that can result in your becoming a victim of identity theft.

Another WhatsApp scam starts when you see an ad on your Facebook page offering an app for you to access WhatsApp on your desktop computer.  If you fall for this scam and sign up, you will end up unwittingly providing your friends list to the scammer who can then target your friends with malicious emails that appear to come from you.

TIPS

Never click on links to update software until you have confirmed that the prompt to do so is legitimate.  In this case, you should contact WhatsApp before considering downloading anything that appears to be prompted by a communication from them.  As for the Facebook ad, like many scams, it is riddled with spelling errors and grammatical errors that should immediately tip you off that it is a scam, but again, never click on any link until you have confirmed that it is legitimate.