Jewish Influencers Warn of WhatsApp Scam Targeting Frum Community
Earlier this week, FrumNews.com reported that a scam targeting many in the Jewish world has been going on. Hundreds of Frum Jews in New York and New Jersey have fallen victim to this brutal scam this past week.
By FrumNews.com
Earlier this year, FrumNews.com reported that a scam targeting many in the Jewish community has been going on. Hundreds of Frum Yidden in New York and New Jersey have fallen victim to this brutal scam this past week.
This is a flavor of social engineering scams by gaining the user’s trust—by posing as a close contact, even as a spouse, parent or child —to extort the user to gain access to their accounts. (Click here to learn how to spot and protect yourselves from this scam.)
Nachi Gordon of the popular Meaningful Minute is among Jewish influencers relaying their experiences of these attacks. On Twitter/X, Nachi relayed an example of this harrowing scam affecting the Jewish community:
“I was contacted by a friend of mine, Antony Gordon, on WhatsApp, requesting I send him a 6 digit code that was sent to me by accident.
“At that very moment, I received a prompt from WhatsApp with the code.
“Something seemed off.
“So what does a Jew do?
“Ask questions, lol.
“The answer to what his Hebrew name is was clearly the wrong answer.
“I sent a fake code just to waste this guy’s time a bit.
“Beware!
“Had I given the code, this scammer would’ve had access to my WhatsApp account, including my chat history and sensitive information such as credit card and bank information.
“As of this tweet, I’ve been told that some major Jewish businesses have been hacked on WhatsApp!”
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One commenter relayed his experience with this scam:
“This exact thing happened to me a few years ago. and like an idiot I sent the code back to my friend. And then my WhatsApp was hacked and I could not get into WhatsApp. I did get it back eventually after a week.
“I had to go through a series of steps that WhatsApp Support sent me. The minute I was back into my account, I installed two-step authentication. That is what I advise everyone to do. And also not to send suspicious codes to ANYONE.”
6 Comments
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11/20/2024 | י"ט חשון התשפ"ה
This happened to me, Beware! It can happen to anyone.
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11/20/2024 | י"ט חשון התשפ"ה
Whatsapp freezes your ability to request a new code (and take back your account for 12 hours). At the 12 hour mark, the hackers request a new code from themselves to maintain ownership of the account.
There is no one at Meta to talk to about this. You literally can’t talk to a human to ask for help and they are unresponsive to electronic requests. Shame on Meta that they turn a blind eye to this! -
11/20/2024 | י"ט חשון התשפ"ה
I had this on my regular texting. Then a friend of mine texted me for the code. I called him and asked him what’s this code thing? He said he didn’t what I was talking about. Then Charles schwab Co calls me that someone tried to get into my schwab account.
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11/20/2024 | י"ט חשון התשפ"ה
These hacks are still ongoing. They are coming from contacts that you have saved, who are compromised, and look like innocent friends. Once compromised, users have been locked out of their account for 12-24 hours as scammers proceed to make multiple failed attempts to trigger the lockout of reclaiming your account using SMS or phone call.
Turn on Two-step verification in your account settings on Whatsapp to prevent being compromised in the event you fall for a scam.
Settings>Account>Two-step verification .
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forum Reply to Yitz ITQIX Technology Group 11/20/2024 | י"ט חשון התשפ"ה
Thank you I think this happened to me too once
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11/20/2024 | י"ט חשון התשפ"ה
The next step they take is to send your contacts messages that sound like it’s from you asking them for a loan on zellle. My sister almost sent them $1000 thinking it was me
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