“Hey, are you busy? I am at an event and trying to reach out to the marketing guys, but unable to connect. It can just be about ‘click to win’ calls.” Whereas, phishing does not really require any inducement of that nature. Without that pretense, the person will not be duped into acting the way that they acted. Here, the key is an inducement of you pretending to be someone else. It is impersonation where, because of you telling me you are ‘X’, I am doing this. “Impersonation relies upon some degree of familiarity with the identity of the impersonated person. In the latest case, a WebEngage employee almost ended up sending Apple gift card vouchers to a fraudster posing as the co-founder of the company, Avlesh Singh, on WhatsApp.Ībhinav Sekhri, advocate practising in New Delhi, explains that impersonation is a smaller subset of a broader category of phishing attacks, which do not necessarily rely upon the relationship factor between the impersonated person and the target person. Recently, employees of WebEngage and CleverTap were nearly scammed into spending a good amount of money in compliance of their fake boss’ WhatsApp command. After the mayor of Chandigarh, Mumbai police and Adar Poonawalla, founders of WebEngage, CleverTap and MediaNama have appeared on the radar of impersonators on WhatsApp and mails. Few persons would be alert enough to identify at one glance that such texts can also be scam-worthy and that this could be a new technique for duping employees through WhatsApp. Jordan said: “We’d urge anyone who is targeted in this scam to make sure they report it to Action Fraud, even if they recognise it is a scam and do not transfer any money.‘Hi, I needed something to be done urgently’, a text message like this from your boss on a busy day can only mean an incoming on-priority work. In the first two months of this year more than 75 people in Avon and Somerset reported financial losses totalling more than £80,000 through this scam to Action Fraud, but it is likely that the true cost is much higher. Press and hold on the message bubble, select ‘Report’ and then follow the instructions. Report spam messages or block mobile numbers used in scams within WhatsApp. Alternatively try contacting your child/children using their original phone number to see if it is working. Check by calling the new number because if it is really your child and they need help then they will answer your call.
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