Beware of WhatsApp Screen Share Scam: Cybercriminals Exploit Feature for Financial Fraud

WhatsApp serves as a versatile communication platform, offering a range of features that cater to personal and professional needs. Users can leverage these functionalities for efficient, real-time, and multimedia-rich communication.

However, miscreants are taking advantage of the wider WhatsApp audience to embark on financial fraud activities and one such recent development is the WhatsApp screen share scam.

With WhatsApp screen share scams, the victim does not have to do anything other than enable the screen share option, as requested by cybercriminals.

When screen sharing is enabled, scammers will have real-time access to your smartphone screen and they can read messages and OTPs that you might receive, which will be initiated by the cybercriminals.

Ever since the screen mirroring feature was natively included in WhatsApp, this type of scam has seen an alarming rise. Innocent users, unaware of the lurking dangers, have been caught in the crosshairs of these cybercriminals, suffering not only financial losses but also a breach of their personal and financial losses but also a breach of their personal and financial information.

WhatsApp’s Stand and Safety Tips

In a bid to curb this menace and protect its users, WhatsApp executives have shared a series of safety measures. The advisory includes not accepting voice or video calls from unknown numbers, refraining from sharing OTPs, credit/debit card details, CVV numbers and passwords. It also urges users to be cautious with screen share requests and to confirm the identity of known contacts through a voice call before proceeding with video calls or screen sharing.