Almost 500 Million WhatsApp Accounts Have Been Leaked Online – What To Do Now
Received a WhatsApp call or message from an unknown number? Your account may be at risk of spam or even scams because millions of WhatsApp account phone numbers are currently up for sale on a hacking forum.
As reported by Cybernews (Opens in a new tab)2022 Someone sells a database of 487 million WhatsApp mobile numbers. This includes accounts from 84 countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Egypt, and many others. There seem to be 32 million US records involved as well as 11 million records from the UK. WhatsApp has around 2 billion monthly active users around the world and this leak put nearly half a billion users at risk.
Cybernews also states that all of the leaked accounts belong to active WhatsApp users. The seller could have obtained the phone numbers through a process called scraping, which refers to large-scale information gathering — although this violates WhatsApp’s terms of service.
The seller also disclosed that the US data was sold for $7,000. Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, has not released a statement regarding the leak yet.
How to stay safe from WhatsApp attacks
The type of information that was leaked in this case, the phone numbers of WhatsApp users, is mainly used for phishing attacks, fraud or spamming. If you are an active WhatsApp user, beware of unknown numbers trying to message or call you on the platform.
The main thing that you must do to keep yourself safe from attackers who may have obtained your WhatsApp number is to change your privacy settings. Go to Settings, inside WhatsApp, click on Privacy and then change the setting for Last Seen Online, Profile Picture and About to Contacts Only.
You can also enable two-step verification to further secure your WhatsApp account. Go to Settings in the app, tap on Account and then on 2-Step Verification. This will ask you to create a PIN which adds another layer of security to your account.
In the event that you receive a suspicious message from an unknown WhatsApp number, do not click or open any link they may send and block the number immediately.
Also, be careful what messaging apps you install as some messaging apps WhatsApp clone It was discovered to be malware in disguise. Earlier this year, Meta filed a lawsuit against several Chinese companies, which it accused them of More than a million WhatsApp accounts were stolen (Opens in a new tab) via fake versions of the app.
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