It has been more than two years since I last wrote about scams involving the popular mobile messaging service WhatsApp  WhatsApp is a mobile messaging app for your smartphone that allows you to send text messages, photographs, videos and audio.  With more than a billion people using WhatsApp, it is not surprising that it has become attractive to scammers seeking to use its popularity to lure victims into becoming victims of scams.  The most recent WhatsApp scam starts with an email you receive that appears to come from WhatsApp telling you that you have missed a WhatsApp call or voice message on your smartphone and provides a link for you to click on in order to access the missed message.  Unfortunately, however, if you click on the link you risk downloading malware such as keystroke logging malware that will steal personal data from whatever electronic device you are using and use that information to make you a victim of identity theft.

TIPS

Never click on a link in an email or text message until you have independently confirmed that it is legitimate.  The risk of downloading malware is too great.  Even if your computer or other electronic device is protected with anti-virus and anti-malware security software, the best security software is always at least thirty days behind the latest malware.  Trust me, you can’t trust anyone when it comes to clicking on links.  Even if the link is contained in a communication that appears to come from a person or company you trust, you should always verify that it is legitimate before clicking on the link.  As for this specific scam, WhatsApp never contacts you by email and doesn’t even have your email address, so if you receive an email that purports to be from WhatsApp, you can be confident that it is a scam and you should delete it without clicking on any links contained therein.