The E-Crime Bureau of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service is warning the public about cyber-criminals who are taking over people’s Whatsapp accounts in what’s obviously becoming the new hacking problem on Ghana’s social media landscape.
Speaking on TV3 News’ Midday Live News Program, Cyber Analyst Philemon Hini explained how these cyber criminals go about their business of hacking and taking over Whatsapp accounts.
It starts with a message that you won some money (even though you never entered any lottery or draw) and that you should go to a website and give out some information. A target will then receive a code from Whatsapp and once you communicate this code to the entity posing as representatives of a company that’s going to pay you money, you will lose your Whatsapp account in a heartbeat.
Mr. Hini said the E-Crime Bureau has not been able to establish the motive behind the Whatsapp accounts takeover scam but what’s clear is that the moment you lose your account, your contacts are at the same risk as these people send the same message to all your contacts.
“We received these incidents this morning so currently we have not been able to establish the motive behind these attacks yet but people should take note of these attacks so that whenever these criminals ask them to send code back to them they don’t do it.”
