The Brusinhas store, popular on social media for selling clothing and accessories with prints inspired by memes, informed its followers on Twitter (65,200 currently) that scammers were using a stolen company number to carry out scams on WhatsApp.
The criminals’ strategy involves the misuse of the company’s identity to deceive potential customers. “A few months ago they stole our WhatsApp number and now they are trying to impersonate us, requesting to send Pix for keys that are NOT ours!”
Scams like this are not uncommon. A survey carried out by the digital security company PSafe in 2020 estimated that, in September of that year alone, 453,000 people had their WhatsApp cloned or their account spoofed — an average of 15,000 victims per day.
what happened
The company’s alert came after São Paulo journalist Martha Raquel noticed that there was something wrong with the store’s number and shared her experience on Twitter: “I contacted @usebrusinhas through WhatsApp and there is a person impersonating the girls. because I sent a question and the first message they sent me was a Pix”.
CUSTOMERS ATTENTION!
a few months ago they stole our WhatsApp number and now they are trying to impersonate us, requesting to send PIX for keys that are NOT ours!
We need your help to report this number, ok?!
the number: 41 91469013
how to report: https://t.co/yUMRtaKGjz pic.twitter.com/vQ9hdqOiwD– Brusinhas ?? (@usebrusinhas) April 28, 2022
The company said in subsequent publications that it had taken “all necessary measures”, such as registering a police report and reporting the number to the operator, but the scammers continue to try to steal customers. “We tried to contact the number directly and the person tried to extort us with R$3,800 for the chip.”
In view of the fact, the administrators of the Brusinhas store contacted WhatsApp through the “Contact us” page, available on the app, to try to regain ownership of the stolen account, but so far, the case has not been resolved.
“We do NOT request sending values via Whats. We do NOT have a key in the name of an individual”, reinforced the company on Twitter to guide its followers.
What WhatsApp says
wanted by Tilt to comment on the case, WhatsApp said in a note that it “does not allow the use of its service for illicit purposes or that instigate or encourage conduct that is illicit or inappropriate”.
In cases of violation of these terms, WhatsApp says that it takes measures in relation to the accounts, such as deactivating or suspending them.
In case of attempted account theft, the company also points out that the end-to-end encryption of the application is not compromised. That is, the scammer does not have access to previous messages that were stored on your phone — unless they also stole your Google Drive or iCloud account backup (which can also be encrypted).
How to protect yourself from such scams?
If you contact a company and suspect something, or if you are sure that that number is being controlled by unauthorized people, as in the case of the Brusinhas store, it is important that you report the number to WhatsApp. Thus, the company will do an analysis to see if it blocks the cell phone number in question.
For this:
Tap the suspicious person’s contact number or photo; Scroll down until you find the “Report” option and tap on it.
WhatsApp also provides important tips in its Help Center to avoid falling into the trap of scammers. Are they:
What to do if you are a victim
If you discover that your photo and name are being used on a different WhatsApp account or if your own has been cloned, please inform your closest contacts immediately. This can be done through social media and direct link to them. This way, you reduce the chances of your contacts falling for the criminals’ lips – who usually ask for transfers or deposits pretending to be you.
The second step is to try to recover your account if it has been stolen. One way out is to try to reactivate it on a cell phone again. Depending on the type of scam, you may be able to disconnect the criminal from your profile and use your number again.
If the account is also connected to WhatsApp Web, desktop version of the application, disconnect from there.
Just go to Settings/Settings;Go to Account;Tap WhatsApp Web/DesktopTap “Sign out of all computers”.
