How a fast-growing rip-off is tricking WhatsApp customers into revealing their most delicate monetary and different information
05 Nov 2025
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4 min. learn
Scams and different threats which are doing the rounds on messaging apps like WhatsApp are a stark reminder of how simply even trusted platforms might be weaponized in opposition to us.
One misleading tactic that has gained traction just lately includes tricking folks into sharing their cellphone screens throughout a WhatsApp video name. The screen-sharing function, out there in WhatsApp since 2023, is more and more being turned in opposition to the app’s customers to steal their information, identities and cash.
Circumstances of what’s primarily a spin on distant entry fraud have been reported from varied components of the world, together with the United Kingdom, India and Hong Kong, the place one sufferer misplaced at least HK$5.5 million (US$700,000) in a rigorously orchestrated ploy.
Right here’s what it’s best to know concerning the rip-off and how one can keep secure from it.
How does the rip-off unfold?
Because the objective is to construct belief or create panic so that you just act impulsively, the rip-off depends much less on technical wizardry and extra on psychological manipulation. Right here’s the way it usually unfolds:
1. The decision
All the things begins with a WhatsApp video name from an unfamiliar quantity. The scammer masquerades as a financial institution or service consultant, a WhatsApp or Meta help agent, or perhaps a pal or relative of yours in misery. To seem professional, they spoof a neighborhood cellphone quantity whereas their video feed could also be disabled, darkish or blurry to hide their true identification.
2. The issue
Subsequent comes a way of urgency. The caller will declare that there’s an unauthorized cost in your bank card, an open session on one other system that must be closed, a pending prize that wants your verification, or a danger that your account could also be suspended. The objective, after all, is to create a way of panic and get you to behave with out pondering twice.
3. Display sharing
The scammer then asks you to share your cellphone’s display screen, ostensibly to help you remotely to allow them to “resolve” the alleged subject. It’s possible you’ll be requested to put in a professional distant entry app, comparable to AnyDesk or TeamViewer. When you oblige, any incoming textual content messages and WhatsApp verification codes turn out to be seen to them. With these of their fingers, the attacker can instantly take over your WhatsApp account. It will get even worse from right here, nonetheless.
4. Entry to private information
Together with your display screen seen to the unhealthy actor in actual time, they will additionally steal your passwords, 2FA codes, one-time passwords (OTPs), in addition to seize screenshots or ask you to open your banking app and trick you into making financial institution transfers – all below the pretext of resolving the purported downside. They will additionally dupe their marks into putting in malware, comparable to keyloggers, that silently data delicate info for later theft.
5. Theft of accounts and cash
After acquiring verification codes and banking information, scammers can drain your banking accounts and hijack social media and different on-line accounts and go on to impersonate you to proceed to rip-off, this time focusing on your relations and buddies.
Learn how to shield your self
The rip-off is efficient as a result of it exploits three potent substances: belief (created by a video name from a trusted entity), urgency (created by a fabricated downside), and management (granted via the display screen sharing function or a distant entry instrument). This mixture provides criminals near-total visibility into your cellphone.
Staying secure from this rip-off, subsequently, relies upon extra on consciousness and self-discipline than on technological safeguards. With that in thoughts, stick to those important practices:
- By no means share your display screen with somebody you don’t personally know, doubly so throughout an unsolicited name. Should you obtain a name from an unknown quantity the place the caller claims to symbolize a financial institution, on-line service supplier or another trusted entity, dangle up and get in touch with the establishment immediately via a verified channel.
- By no means share your passwords, verification codes or any private or monetary information over the cellphone. On-line companies, banks or another professional firms won’t ever ask in your passwords, PINs, or card particulars via unsolicited calls or messages.
- Keep away from putting in remote-access apps on the behest of strangers as distant entry instruments like AnyDesk or TeamViewer can grant them full management of your system.
- Confirm alarming info independently. Remember that scammers will attempt to rush you into motion, usually by making you panic. Resist the urge to oblige; as a substitute, take a deep breath and assume.
- If somebody claims that there’s an issue together with your checking account or your pal or relative is in bother, contact your financial institution or your relative immediately and thru one other channel earlier than taking any motion.
- Allow 2FA in WhatsApp (known as two-step verification within the app) by navigating to Settings → Account → Two-step verification → Activate or Arrange PIN. That method, even when cybercriminals pay money for your login credentials, they are going to want this second issue to entry your account.
Staying safe begins with skepticism
The rip-off described above is one other reminder that social engineering stays one of the highly effective weapons in a cybercriminal’s arsenal. It additionally reveals how a momentary lapse in judgment can wipe out your life financial savings. In circumstances like these, subsequently, consciousness is your first and strongest line of safety.
