The Postal Police reports yet another scam concerning the messaging platform owned by Facebook. Needless to say, WhatsApp will always be free
It's not true that with Christmas you become all good. On the contrary: cybercriminals and digital fraudsters take advantage of the holiday season to intensify their activities. Taking advantage of the shopping frenzy and the carelessness of many users, e-commerce scams are growing exponentially, causing significant financial damage.
Cyber criminals, however, are not only focusing on Christmas scams, but they are also taking advantage of them to reintroduce real evergreens. One example out of all? The WhatsApp pay-as-you-go scam that, as reported by the Facebook account of the Postal Police, is spreading like wildfire in Italy in the last few days. According to what reported by the agents of the Postal Service, in fact, many users of our country are receiving text messages or e-mails in which it is asked to confirm within 48 hours the WhatsApp account, otherwise it will become a paid one.
WhatsApp for a fee: how the scam works
The message, as you can see in the screenshot attached by the State Police on Facebook, is sent by a hypothetical WhatsApp Secure account, which warns us of the imminent expiration of our profile on the instant messaging platform. Indeed, to be more precise, according to the message would be about to expire the free use of the platform, with WhatsApp that would become paid. To prevent this from happening, you have to click on a link at the end of the message in which you confirm your account details and provide personal information.
How to defend yourself against WhatsApp paid scam
In case you receive such a message, there is only one thing to do: absolutely nothing. On the contrary, trash it as soon as possible and, if you can, block the sender. Beyond the fact that there is no WhatsApp Secure, it has been repeatedly reiterated by the heads of the messaging platform that WhatsApp will always remain free. In order to monetize the many users, WhatsApp wants to introduce advertising in the Stories, but users will not have to shell out a single penny in order to continue exchanging messages, photos and videos with their contacts.