For many, Watsap is the main means of communication that they are completely satisfied with. Despite some technical flaws, this messenger is quite convenient, intuitive and, most importantly, extremely popular. Watsap has it all. Even those who, in principle, are rather mediocre in smartphones, are probably registered there. However, the widespread use of the messenger has a downside. After all, it is because of this that not only ordinary users are interested in them, but also spammers who drive almost everyone crazy with their mailings.
There is a lot of spam in WhatsApp because it is the most popular messenger
Unlike Telegram, registration in WhatsApp is carried out only by phone number. Therefore, anyone who has your phone number, in theory, can add you to the number of addressees of this or that mailing list. Have you lit your phone number on the classifieds site, used it when registering on a dubious site, or had the carelessness to leave it somewhere else? Be sure that you will receive spam emails for sure.
How to identify spam
Spam almost always promotes or suggests something
The most common type of spam on WhatsApp is mailings with a request to forward a message to 5-10-15-20 people in order to spread this or that information. It was this technique that anti-axers began to use, opposing vaccination against COVID-19. “They want to chip us,” read those mailings, “forward this message to as many friends as possible!” Naturally, many people forwarded these messages to other people, creating panic.
The second type of spam is promotional or traditional. Basically, these are advertising messages that tell about a product, describe its benefits and offer a link that you can follow to learn more about it. Basically, there is nothing wrong with advertising as such. Another thing is that usually you are not asked whether you want to see it or not, because it is not targeted like regular ads on the Internet.
Well, the third type of spam – perhaps no less widespread and traditional than the first – is fraudulent or phishing messages, the purpose of which is to extract money from you or access your accounts. These messages are easy to recognize. As a rule, they disguise themselves as regular advertising, offering too favorable conditions for anything, and always contain a link that leads to a fake resource.
Here’s what the developers write about how to recognize spam in WhatsApp :
- Typos or grammatical errors
- Requests to click on a link or activate new features by link
- Requests to provide your personal information such as credit card or bank account number, date of birth, passwords
- That is forward a message
- Claims that you need to pay to be able to use WhatsApp
Spam on WhatsApp – how to deal with it
Distinguishing spam is generally pretty straightforward. The main thing is to follow the safety rules
Frankly, the signs are pretty dubious. Moreover, spammers today have become much more cunning than before. Therefore, if messages come from users unknown to you, in order to protect yourself, it is better to follow a few rules:
First, never forward anything . Even if this message is extremely harmless, in your opinion, someone could probably take it too personally. This is how the messages about chipping, the dangers of 5G towers and other phenomena of the modern world diverge.
Secondly, never follow the links . Even if you know how to behave correctly in such situations and do not download anything in principle, you should know that there are links with autoloading. So a malicious component can get to your device without your knowledge.
Thirdly, never enter your information by following links from such messages. Even if they look like sites you trust. With a 99% chance, these are phishing resources, the only purpose of which is to remove your credentials from you.
Unfortunately, WhatsApp does not allow you to prevent people outside your contact list from contacting you. Therefore, if spammers still get to you, you will have to block them one by one:
- Open the chat where the spam message came;
- In the right corner, click on the three dots – “More”;
Be sure to select “Spam” so that WhatsApp can permanently block your account
- In the drop-down window select “Block”;
- Click Spam & Block and confirm blocking.
After you block the selected subscriber, he will no longer be able to send you messages. However, it is possible that he will be able to do this using a different account. Therefore , unfortunately, WhatsApp does not offer 100% protection against spammers . Everything will have to be done manually and several times.