In 2015, many WhatsApp users were tricked by ‘invite’ scam messages claiming that they could activate a new voice-calling feature by following a link.
Since then, WhatsApp has rolled out free voice calling to all users, so the tactic used in this old scam is no longer relevant.
But, here’s how the scam worked.
Clicking the link in one of the fake messages, took you to a website that instructed you to click an ‘Invite Now’ button to begin the activation process.
However, clicking the button tricked you into sending the same scam message to all of your WhatsApp contacts. Next, you were asked to participate in various dodgy surveys and download related apps. However, these apps contained malware.
In some cases, the fake websites opened pages containing malicious advertising.
There were several variations of the fake invite messages.
Example
Hi, I am inviting you to try WhatsApp calling go to [link removed]
Hey, i am inviting you to try whatsapp calling click here to activate now –> [Link Removed]
n
