Millions of WhatsApp Web users targeted by new QR code scam

A fresh warning has been issued to millions of people who use the popular social networking app, particularly to those who use the WhatsApp Web feature.

The feature allows users to access their chats through a web browser by scanning a QR code on the WhatsApp site.

However, scammers are taking advantage of the popularity of the service to gain access to people’s accounts via fake websites.

The fraudulent webpages are designed to look exactly like the official WhatsApp site, but a fake QR code will allow crooks to send messages from the victim’s account.

They will often use the victim’s identity to scam money from their contacts list by asking for help borrowing money.

Police in Singapore recently released a fresh warning to everyone who uses the app, saying: “The Police would like to alert members of the public to a new variant of phishing scams which compromises WhatsApp accounts through the use of fake WhatsApp Web phishing websites. These websites trick users into authorising access to their WhatsApp accounts for the scammers.

“When the victims use the QR code scanning function in WhatsApp on their mobile devices they would notice that the websites would be unresponsive as they would not bring them to WhatsApp Web’s interface on their desktops.

"However, scammers who had embedded the QR codes in the phishing websites would then be able to gain remote access to the victims’ WhatsApp accounts, performing unauthorised actions such as messaging the victims’ contacts asking for their personal details and i-banking credentials, or requesting for monies to be transferred to a designated bank account."

You can check your linked devices by going to WhatsApp Settings on your mobile app, and clicking Linked Devices.

From here you should regularly review the devices linked to your account and remove any you do not recognise or regularly use.

To do this, you click on the device you want to remove, and then click log out.