09/11/2020
Hi Everyone - Please note... !!!BIG WHATSAPP WARNING!!!
Please note that there is a severe whatsapp hack doing the rounds at the moment. If you see either a message on a group chat that someone has changed their number and to click on it to update your contacts, or you receive an sms with a whatsapp code followed immediately by a whatsapp message claiming to be someone who inadvertently sent you a code and please can you urgently send it to them, please don't entertain either of these requests, but rather block the sender number using the block and report option and then delete said messages. If you have already sent this code back to them the hackers will now log into your whatsapp account and start receiving all your chats giving them access to further contact numbers to hack. Likewise, if you did clicked on the "update number" message in a group chat this will replace your number with the hacker's number and they will be able to see contact numbers on the group. These messages may even come with a profile picture of someone you know so don't be tempted to comply!
The hackers seem to be using an Oman registered phone number - +968.... If you have already sent back the requested code you may have to reclaim your whatsapp account by backing up your chats before exiting whatsapp, removing whatsapp and reinstalling it, so you can go through the code verification process yourself. Please do this even if they haven't accessed your account yet as, by so doing, it will force the code you sent them to expire and become unusable by the hackers.
Of course, from time to time members of a group chats do change numbers for various reasons, so I would advise Private Messaging the person to verify before updating your contacts.
