Whatsap hacked?

Alter_ego

Received whatsap today purporting to come from a friend. It said friend had changed her phone number - tap for details. I didn't tap as I knew number hadnt changed.

Seconds after deleting I received a dodgy looking video, from same source. Also quickly deleted.

Contacted friend (different way) she confirmed not from her.

Any ideas please, is my phone hacked??

cx6

It is a fairly common phishing scam - sending a whatsapp message to all and sundry saying they are your 'friend' and this is their 'new number'.

Sometimes the phishers send out messages such as 'is that you mum' and will get a number of replies saying 'yes, is that you John...' or whatever.

'John' will then proceed to tell his mum this is his new number, his phone has been lost / stolen and he needs money to get home etc etc

Alter_ego

Thanks for that CX6. I guess my number is on one of the lists of potential suckers then.

J_B

I *think* there's an option to 'report' messages from unknown scources on Whatsapp

Alter_ego

Thought a little more about this.

Q How would a random message contain the correct name of my friend (unusual spelling)

ballyblack

Alter_ego said:

Thought a little more about this.

Q How would a random message contain the correct name of my friend (unusual spelling)

She shared her name phone number somewhere on social media perhaps?

She entered a 'competition'

someone else's contact list hacked

PRAISETHESUN

Sounds more like your friend has had their phone compromised rather than anything on your end - as long as you haven't downloaded anything dodgy to your phone or acted upon any of the messages then I'd say you're probably okay.

As above, plenty of ways in which people's details can get leaked - legitimately by people/bots trawling through social media or other public sites, companies selling your personal data to third parties, etc; or illegitimately through hacks/data breaches, etc.