WhatsApp, is the most used instant messenger application worldwide, which is why it becomes the perfect target for crackers and extortionists who try to scam people, spreading false news, in addition to stealing user data.
On March 19 a new attack was released in which they steal your WhatsApp identity through an SMS or text message, and despite the fact that the first cases are occurring in Spain, it is likely that this will eventually expand to other parts of the world, including Latin America, one of the geographical areas where WhatsApp has a very high market penetration.
This fact was announced through the complaint of a young woman to the police in Santacara, municipality of Navarra, Spain, the young woman mentions that she received a message through WhatsApp from her cousin, who requested her help, and for this he needed to send you a link through an SMS containing information with which he could supposedly help his cousin solve problems with his computer.
When the young woman opened SMS her WhatsApp stopped working, and immediately made a phone call to her cousin to ask for an explanation, but she mentioned that at no time she had sent a message through WhatsApp to ask for help, much less I sent a link via SMS.
From this case, many people began to denounce this act in the Group of Computer Crimes of Spain, currently this case is under investigation. Apparently, this attack is carried out to supplant the identity of the people, in order to be able to obtain their list of contacts in WhatsApp and with this to acquire the data of their profile. Fortunately, the data obtained by these cybercriminals are not as sensitive as passwords or bank information.
The real problem with this is that being able to impersonate a user's identity is very easy to perform some extortion or deception.
