Kolkata Woman’s WhatsApp Account Hacked by Scammers Who Deceived Contacts Into Transferring Money

Over the past few months, there has been a steady increase in WhatsApp fraud cases. These include job scams, fraudulent calls from individuals posing as company representatives, and call forwarding scams. Recently, a woman from Tollygunge, Kolkata fell victim to a call forwarding scam where scammers tricked her into dialing call forwarding codes.

According to a report in The Times of India, a 45-year-old woman from Kolkata contacted Cyber Cell to report that her WhatsApp account had been compromised and that fraudsters were impersonating her and sending messages to her contacts. asking for money on the pretext that he needs money to go to Odisha.

The complainant said that the Wi-Fi at his residence was faulty, so he lodged a complaint with the telecom service providers’ customer service for assistance.

Later, on June 5, she received a call from someone pretending to be a customer service manager, telling her to dial a code starting with 401 — a code used to forward calls and messages to numbers ending in 67 and other sequences. A scammer masquerading as a manager assured that his problem would be solved.

The woman later discovered that her WhatsApp account had been compromised and that her contacts were receiving messages asking for money on her behalf.

The Times of India notes that the Kolkata police also shared an example of another woman who had fallen victim to the same scam, but the hackers demanded a ransom to terminate her account.

Police even took to Facebook to share the joint event. “WhatsApp hacked! If you receive such a message and if any person in your WhatsApp contact list (even if known) asks you to forward the same, please do not. Fraudsters use this to control your WhatsApp account. We have received a few such complaints and request your cooperation,” Police said.