The police in Singapore have released a warning regarding a new phishing scam variation wherein hackers gain access to a victim’s contacts and WhatsApp account.
Through the use of a QR code, the scam tricks victims into connecting their WhatsApp account to a phoney phishing website, thus giving the owner of the website secret access.
Since it’s simple for hackers to transfer money while remaining anonymous, phishing scams are pervasive in the cryptocurrency industry. According to a report released last week, users of the password-encryption and storage platform LastPass lost $4.4 million in a single day following a security breach on the software’s cloud platform last year.
Irreversible transactions make it nearly impossible for hackers to retrieve the funds from a user’s wallet once they obtain access to the private key, which is another reason why cryptocurrency users are targeted.
Taiwanese actress Aileen Tan was the victim of the WhatsApp scam, according to Yahoo Finance. Her husband’s bank account in Hong Kong was contacted by hackers using her login credentials. One WhatsApp user transferred $3,500 to a friend’s hacked account, according to a StraitsTimes report.