Warning about cyber criminals’ use of WhatsApp

Petteri Järvinen warns about scammers who try to move conversations to WhatsApp.

Have you ever received a suspicious text message from someone who soon wanted to continue chatting on WhatsApp?

“In quite a few scams, the scammers first send a text message and then soon suggest you continue chatting on WhatsApp. That’s always suspicious,” author Petteri Järvinen says.

Järvinen says the first contact can also be a phone call. Such people prefer WhatsApp because of its lack of control.

“On WhatsApp, there are none of the controls that the phone network has, where the operator generally knows something about the caller’s identity and can trace the location of the phone. Facebook deletes frauds’ accounts quickly if it detects abuses. By contrast, there’s no control on WhatsApp, and no one else can read the messages, because they’re encrypted end-to-end. WhatsApp is a fraud’s dream,” Järvinen says.

In early September, Helsingin Sanomat reported that restaurateur Sari Helin had received a call from abroad from someone who wanted to buy her recently Michelin-starred restaurant, Le Ankka. Soon, the suspicious buyer suggested a WhatsApp meeting. The restaurateur soon realized it was a scam.

EU Act could weaken data security

The EU’s Digital Markets Act could weaken WhatsApp users’ data security. It obliges digital giants such as Meta to open their services to competition. The EU wants users to be able to send messages to WhatsApp accounts from competing messengers. Petteri Järvinen is not enthusiastic.

“This could mean having to compromise on the encryption of WhatsApp, because other messengers use different types of encryption.”

Meta is currently preparing an update which would give users the opportunity to choose which apps they use to receive messages. In the future, Meta would allow messages to be received in the Messenger folder from apps such as Telegram. On the other hand, users could decide to prevent other platforms from accessing the apps they use.

WhatsApp is soon going to introduce a new feature to protect users. After the update, the Data Protection menu will offer the opportunity to prevent mass messages from unknown senders. However, the feature will contain a threshold for the number of messages from unknown senders. If the threshold is not exceeded, WhatsApp will not block delivery of the messages. Precise information about the threshold is pending.

Phone number: risk and opportunity

From a business owner’s perspective, hiding your phone number on social media, for example, is not usually sensible, as it could affect customer volume. On the other hand, phone numbers make it easier for frauds to get in touch.

“A phone number is a requirement for a business. You have to have it on display. In a way, phone numbers have become personal ID numbers, because we use them for authentication in lots of services,” says Järvinen, referring to things like two-factor authentication and signing up for services.

“This is why you should be cautious about where you share your number. All personal data always contain the risk of abuse.”

The reform introduced last year by Traficom, the Finnish Transport and Communications Industry, and operators already prevents the forgery of sender data. Last November, large organizations got the opportunity to reserve text message sender names, making fraudulent text messages claiming to be from Posti, for example, more difficult. Operators have also prevented the masking of foreign numbers as Finnish numbers.

Järvinen thinks it possible that even more frauds will try to use messenger apps in future.

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