A Startup Founder’s Conversation With A Scammer On WhatsApp Raises Awareness About Spam

Scammers are increasingly targeting their potential victims on WhatsApp owing to its immense popularity among Indians. A startup co-founder shared her conversation with one such account, and it received several responses from WhatsApp users with similar experiences.

WhatsApp users in India have been increasingly getting calls, messages, and even requests for video chats from unknown numbers. A WhatsApp user shared her experience on Twitter. She even added a hilarious and unexpected twist to the conversation with a scammer.

Woman Shares WhatsApp Conversation With Scammer

A Twitter user, identified as Udita Pal shared her hilarious conversation between her and the scammer. Udita is an entrepreneur from Bengaluru and the co-founder of SaltPe.

Udita received a message from an unknown international number, with the country code 221, which suggests the number was from Senegal. Despite being an international number, the obvious scammer introduced himself as Devikar, a recruiter in a Mumbai-based firm, Taurus Capital Company Limited.

Udita was offered a job that says she must like and subscribe to the company's videos. It is a common scam on WhatsApp, which claims to pay users money for every video they watch and an additional bonus if they subscribe to the channel which posts the video.

Knowing well it was a scam, instead of opening the given video link, Udita accessed YouTube and played a video titled 'Caught Someone Trying to Scam'. Then, she sent the scammer a screenshot of liking and sharing that video.

Despite such an obvious hint, the scammer still asked her to like the video that he shared. In response, Udita played a video titled 'Idiot Still Doesn't Get it'. The scammer again asked her to open the link he shared.

Realizing the scammer might not be aware or care about the clever and hilarious responses, Udita confronted the scammer. However, instead of getting angry, she offered the scammer a job and asked for LinkedIn account information. This prompted the scammer to block her.

Indian WhatsApp Users Troubled By International Numbers

Needless to mention, in the attempted scam mentioned above, the link shared by the scammer was part of a phishing attack. These links can lead unsuspecting users to dubious websites which can steal user data by installing malware.

Indian WhatsApp users are increasingly getting spam calls, messages, and even requests from video chats from unknown numbers. Interestingly, the majority of these messages and calls are from international numbers.

WhatsApp is reportedly working on a feature that will silence calls from unknown numbers. However, until the feature rolls out, users should report and block such numbers.