WhatsApp pay introduced in India on February 7, 2020, in partnership with ICICI Bank. The messaging app received NPCI’s approval to roll out its digital payment service in a phased manner. As everyone adopting WhatsApp pay, scammers also targeting WhatsApp to hack their bank accounts registered with WhatsApp pay. If you’re not aware of using the UPI payments app safely, please learn it or stay away from these kinds of apps or you can try the Gpay or PhonePe app, which provides major banking services.
Also, Read | How to enable WhatsApp’s Disappearing Messages feature
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How do scammers peep into one’s WhatsApp Pay or Any other UPI based apps?
Usually, registering to any bank phone number is mandatory and required OTP (one-time password) for verification, which many of them know while getting a new bank account.
While Scammers collect your bank account number and phone number from their sources. They try to log in to your bank account through the “forget password” which required an OTP to verify, after getting OTP they change your phone number to their phone number then boom, your bank account is hacked and emptied.
Scammers will text you through WhatsApp or sometimes call you asking for OTP. They pretend to be nice and gentle with you. Sometimes scammers may say that by mistake they have sent you OTP and it’s an emergency and asks you to forward your OTP. Never share any kind of OTP with anyone even with your friends and family. If you share your OTP by mistake, your account will be hacked. You can try to avoid this by calling the bank officials to block your account with any type of transaction. This works only when you report immediately after the scam.
How can you avoid an OTP scam?
Thumb rule when you are using UPI based apps for banking transaction.
- Never share any kind of OTP with anyone even if it’s banking officials.
- Don’t enter passwords while receiving money from anyone.
- Never share your Debit/Credit number and PIN with anyone.
- Frequently change passwords every 60 days.
- Report immediately to the bank if you find any uneven transaction.
- Disable the international transaction while you are in the same country.
- Enable two-step verification in WhatsApp for safety.
- Avoid doing transactions by using free Wi-Fi.
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