Don’t press play: screenshot shows the phishing scam in action
A friendly PSA from the EDGE team:
If you get an email saying you have new messages from WhatsApp, you might want to think twice about clicking the big green “play” button, even if the email comes from a known address.
The emails seem to be part of a well-documented malware scam, and over the past week an increasing number of Yellowknifers have reported receiving them, even if they don’t use WhatsApp smartphone messaging.
According to a post on the WhatsApp website: “We do not send you emails about chats, voice messages, payment, changes, photos, or videos. You will only receive an email from WhatsApp if you initiate a conversation with us via our dedicated email channels, such as one of our support channels.
“Unwanted messages come in many forms, such as spam, hoax and phishing messages. All these types of messages are broadly defined as unsolicited messages that try to deceive you and prompt you to act in a certain way.”
It seems the scam uses a phishing technique that allows hackers to access people’s email accounts and send emails from them. So just because the email comes from a friend, doesn’t mean you should click on it.
