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Twitter User Loses His WhatsApp Account Briefly In Alleged Scam By A 'Friend'

He received a deceiving message from a friend whose phone number was hacked.

Cover image via @chuannyboy (Twitter) & TechCrunch

A Twitter user who goes by 'Rii Chuan' recently shared his experience regarding a WhatsApp scam tactic

On 18 November, Rii Chuan posted a thread warning people not to open any messages from friends asking for a code.

According to the thread, he received a message from his university friend asking him to send a six-digit code.

After sharing the code, he was logged out of his WhatsApp account and was asked to verify his phone number

Rii Chuan received a call from the US, which lasted for 30 seconds. The operator spoke in a different language.

After the call, he had to wait for 12 hours to get another six-digit code or risk not getting his account back.

Rii Chuan received a text message for the code in Spanish, indicating that the scam might have taken place outside of Malaysia

He recovered his account yesterday, 19 November, but unfortunately, his messages were all wiped

Rii Chuan has asked those with his phone number to delete or block it to prevent anyone from being deceived by his compromised phone number.

You can prevent similar scams from happening to yourself by making your account more secure

Two-step verification is a feature that adds another layer of security to your WhatsApp account. When you enable it, you will be required to enter an email address as well as a new PIN.

Every time you log into your WhatsApp account, you will be required to enter your PIN along with the six-digit code tied to your phone number.

WhatsApp will sometimes prompt you to enter your PIN to help you remember it.

Read the full Twitter thread below:

Here's a list on how to prevent yourself from getting scammed while shopping online:

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