We all love to share gifs, videos and links to our friends on Whatsapp. But beware! Not all links are welcoming.
Right after the WannaCry virus have been affecting computers all around the world,recently, a malware has gone viral in a fortnight through Whatsapp. Everyone owns a smartphone today and it will surely have Whatsapp installed in it. There is a message that has gone viral, which claims that by clicking on the link, you can change the colour of your Whatsapp application.
This message went viral like “I like the new colours for Whatsapp”, followed by a link. The endorser asks the user through the message to share the message to friends or on groups for verification. Fake messages like this usually go viral on social networking sites, but they are usually taken down by cyber security services.
When the colour malware message is sent to other people or groups, the next message that pops up is that users need to have chrome and download a particular extension to change the colour of the application. Then the link sends you directly to a fake website of Whatsapp. People who regularly browse users can clearly identify that the website is fake, but there are many out there who doesn’t know the actual website.
The fake Whatsapp website has a different font than the original website font. You will be redirected to a website named ‘www.blackwhats.site’, which is basically a malware suspected website. When a person goes to such websites and downloads unauthorized extensions, personal data are then slowly transferred to the attacker/endorser.
The fake extension was uploaded on Google webstore and that is why most people were not suspicious about it. Google has now removed the malware from the store. Each and every Whatsapp messages cannot be monitored by the cyber security authorities, and so people must be wise enough to know about these threats.
Do not click on any such suspicious links or download anything unusual for your own safety and benefit.