WhatsApp? Scams galore

MOST KEEP TRUSTING THE FAMILIAR APPS, AND ASSUME SCAMS WON'T HAPPEN TO THEM

- Charles Assisi

The call came early in the morning on Thursday. A neighbor of over two and a half decades, now in her mid-70s, asking for help. Her phone, she said, had been hijacked. Someone had seized control of her WhatsApp account. She could see messages coming in, but couldn't reply. Even the housing society's WhatsApp group—normally an endless stream of messages about plumber visits and festival donations—had gone silent. The settings had been changed. No one could post. Only the hijacker could broadcast.

When she called, she was already in a rickshaw, on her way to the police station with a friend. But her voice carried panic of the kind that comes from realizing your private space has been invaded. By the time I got there, a young police officer had taken down all the details. He was calm and appeared methodical. Turns out, he had seen this before. It would take 10–12 hours, he said, the voice of experience on his side. The account would be restored. But the damage had already been done.

It had started with a message, seemingly from a friend with a simple request on WhatsApp: share an OTP. There was no hesitation because of the familiar name flashing on her screen. After she did, in minutes, she got locked out of her phone.