For last couple of days, WhatsApp Gold is making the headline in social media circle and now it has made in-road into the news sections too. According to various reports, people are getting link to upgrade their WhatsApp application to WhatsApp Gold, stating that this will enable them to send as many as 100 photos at a time and they can delete them whenever they wish to.
However, the messaging giant said that no such gold version has been launched. According to various experts, then this could be the work of malicious cyber-hackers who is just trying to take control of the user’s smartphone or steal their personal data. The experts suggest that the people should not click on the link promising to upgrade their WhatsApp to WhatsApp Gold. They should delete the message or simply ignore them.
“WhatsApp Gold is one of the best ways to avoid virus messages if you have a message to upgrade to WhatsApp with better features, do not click on it. Also, do not forward such messages. People spread the message through the hoax, by spreading such message forward,” said Manish Kumawat, Director at Cryptus Cyber Security.
This is not the first time that hackers have tried to steal users’ personal information through the Fake Upgrade Whatsapp Application. Even before this kind of message has become viral, they unsuccessfully tried it in different ways.
With Whatsapp being one of the most widely used mobile applications in the world, it has painted a target on itself as being a platform for cyber attackers to float malicious links through messages.
With the nature of language malicious hackers use to create a story and convince the consumer to click on it, which in this case, is getting them a so called upgrade to Whatsapp Gold, it also ensures that people forward these messages without validating the content of links attached.
Though Whatsapp has taken some measures to control the speed of spreading these messages by limiting the users to send only 5 forwards, but still lots of damage can be done.
“It has been seen that hackers have been trying their nasty tricks every now and then to befool the innocent whatsapp users thereby stealing their sensitive information. The message which is being circulated on whatsapp where people are being sent WhatsApp messages to download ‘Whatsapp Gold update’ for the messaging app which in reality is a malware,” said Naveen Dham, CEO, GIS Consulting, a Network Security and Cyber Security Consultant.
