Watch Out for WhatsApp!
Image by Dimitri Karastelev
WhatsApp can be a fantastic messaging tool for both iPhones and Android devices. It is quick to set up and provides powerful but simple to use enhanced chat features. WhatsApp has quickly become one of the most common applications on smartphones with 3 billion monthly active users (as of 2025). Its ability to quickly link to a regular phone number, while using data (rather than SMS messages) means that users don’t have to worry about expensive phone service roaming costs when overseas and instead can easily connect to any data source (like hotel Wi-Fi) and start messaging like normal. The ease of creating messaging groups on WhatsApp also makes it a go-to choice for a wide range of uses, including businesses projects, families and friend groups.
On top of its many other features, WhatsApp also comes with powerful message encryption technology. This means that only the sender and receivers of messages are able to see what those messages contain – the WhatsApp company (owned by Meta) itself has no way of accessing these messages. While this is an extremely useful privacy feature, it unfortunately also means (in combination with its other features) that WhatsApp has now become a central location for scammers attempting to victimise users.
WhatsApp presents a tempting platform for scammers to operate. The ease of creating an account and choosing a custom profile picture and name means that scammers can instantly appear to be someone they’re not. With its encrypted messaging technology, it is also impossible for the company to actively monitor chats for obvious signs of scams – privacy in this case is both a benefit and a drawback!
With its massive number of users, WhatsApp is also the perfect platform for scammers due to the larger number of targets it gives them access to. However, it isn’t the only messaging platform that has become a hotbed of scam activity. Telegram, Signal and WeChat (which is not encrypted) are also commonly used by scammers to send fake messages.
So the next time you receive an unusual message on WhatsApp or find a fake “You Won A Prize” Telegram link in a YouTube comment, be extremely careful! Scammers use any tactic they can to try and convince you to respond to them and give them your details. They will pretend to be trusted companies, government agencies and even family and friends! Always remember that it is not difficult for a scammer to create a WhatsApp account with a fake profile picture and user name designed to fool you into trusting them.
We should all be aware of scam phone calls, text messages and emails, but if you use WhatsApp or a similar messaging service you need to be constantly vigilant. If you’re not 100% sure whether a message on WhatsApp is legitimate, assume that it is not. Don’t be shy about pressing that “Block” button and/or reporting the message to WhatsApp so they can protect other users.