Dimapur Police issues alert on new scam
Morung Express News
Dimapur | June 27
The Dimapur Police, on June 27, issued a warning about a new scam doing round on the instant messaging app WhatsApp. “ITUTU install nakuribi” (don’t install this),” the district police shared on its various social media handles alerting people regarding the ‘WhatsApp Pink.’
According to the law enforcement agency, the current scam involves sending a forward with a link suggesting a new official pink theme to android mobile user “masked as an official update” from WhatsApp. The forwards are accompanied with messages such as “Look WhatsApp Officially Launched with Extra Features Must Try This” or “Update Your WhatsApp to Enjoy New Features with Pink Look Must Try This” etc.
Meanwhile, in the Tuesday’s “Scam Alert!” the Dimapur Police warned that if the WhatsApp Pink is installed, hackers can take photos, contacts, net-banking passwords and text messages.
The details of the scam are more elaborated in a “Red Alert” for Android users on WhatsApp Pink issued recently by the North Region Cyber Police Crime Wing, Mumbai.
As per the Mumbai Police, the news about ‘new Pink Look WhatsApp with extra features” recently doing rounds is a hoax which can lead to hacking of mobiles users through malicious software.
Once a particular user clicks the fake link and downloads the ‘updates,’ while the app’s theme to pink changes, the user mobile can be infected. The same user can also infect the mobiles of people who contact the user over the WhatsApp, the Mumbai Police cautioned.
Apart from bombarding with numerous advertisements, users installing the fake app can lose control over their mobile or their mobile can be hacked and accessed by fraudster, it added.
As a safety measures, the police advised the user to uninstall the fake app downloaded.
It further called to refrain from clicking links received from unknown sources without proper verification and authentication as well as installing apps only through official app stores such as Google Play, Apple App Store or legitimate websites. The users were also advised against sharing personal details or financial information like login credentials, password, cards details etc without proper verifications.
