WhatsApp Users Receive Messages That The Messenger Will Become Paid

After the entry into force of the new privacy policy of the messenger WhatsApp there is a new fraudulent scheme.

Users, mostly pensioners, began to receive messages stating that the service would no longer be free from May 15 if they did not perform certain actions. They were offered to send SMS-messages to 10 contacts, the cost of delivery of each of the messages was €0.01.

Fraudsters operate on the principle of sending “chain letters”.

Their aim is to distribute information among a large number of people en masse. In particular, petitions and viruses can spread this way.

According to Bederov, in the case of WhatsApp, the technology could have been used to discredit the messenger.

Context:

• WhatsApp is a popular free instant text messaging system for mobile and other platforms with voice and video support. It was bought by Facebook in 2014. On Jan. 4 of this year, WhatsApp released a privacy policy update.
• “As one of Facebook’s companies, WhatsApp receives information from other Facebook companies and provides information to other Facebook companies. We may use the information we receive from these companies, and they may use the information provided by us to enable the operation of our services,” the new policy says.
• The decision was criticized by the creator of Telegram, Pavel Durov. He said that because of the change in the rules of WhatsApp, many users will switch to his messenger.
• On May 15, WhatsApp’s new policy went into effect. It imposed some restrictions on users who did not accept it.