Warning issued to UK WhatsApp users – ‘block and report’

There has been a spike in cases of people in the UK receiving suspicious calls, asking them to take action on WhatsApp. The ICO had more than 3,600 complaints about automated calls in September, marking a five-year high and nearly three times the number it had in July. The ICO says that these calls include recorded voices which ask the person receiving the call to ‘add them on WhatsApp’, which then leads to a recruitment scam. The calls typically come from what appears to be a British phone number, so people might be more likely to answer it. “They would either put you through to a fake job listing, which might involve some form of money muling,” Simon Fell, from the Communications Crime Strategy Group, told the BBC.

“It could look like a completely legitimate job, or something ad hoc, but they might pass criminal funds through your account, which can lead to terrible consequences,” he warned. “It could also be a simple phishing exercise – criminals send out these messages, and what they really want to know is who’s picking up, who’s active – that information can be resold on the dark web.

“The possibilities are endless. At the end of the day, this is a criminal that has reached out to you, and they’re trying to defraud you in some way, shape, or form.”

Meanwhile, Andy Curry, the ICO’s head of criminal investigations, told the BBC that he believed the calls are coming from abroad. “We are trying to find who is behind this, why they’re doing it, and the impact it’s having on members of the public,” he revealed.

“We think there are probably millions of people who are receiving these messages, which appear to us to be largely indiscriminate. I’ve had them, my colleague who’s leading the investigation has had them. It’s likely to be the tip of the iceberg.”

Fell said that they are liaising with Meta, the company that owns WhatsApp. Being the most used online messaging service in the UK, those who are potential targets are the majority of smartphone users.

A WhatsApp spokesman revealed that there were features in place to protect its users from scam calls. As well as silencing calls from unknown numbers, they said that WhatsApp banned millions of accounts each year for “malicious behaviours”.

Issuing guidance on staying safe from such scams, OFGEM warned that “these kinds of scam calls are intended to encourage you to call back the number the scammer is using”. Its advice reads: “When they’ve got people on the phone, criminals try to manipulate or pressure them into giving out sensitive information or making payments to accounts they control. You could also run up a large bill by unknowingly calling a premium-rate number.

“If you receive one of these calls, hang up, don’t give out any personal details, and report the call to 7726.”