The colour green is way too mainstream. It’s on our buses, it’s our WhatsApp, it’s even our trees… We see green everywhere. No wonder Jair Bolsonaro hates green in the Amazon Forest so much.

Anyway, if you are tired of WhatsApp Green, WhatsApp Pink is here to rescue you.

Except it’s a scam. Now your phone has a virus. Congratulations.

So, What’s WhatsApp Pink?

A fake WhatsApp that takes over your phone, duh. Look at the headline.

But to be more specific, it is a scam that has been circulating around mainly India, though with the internet, everything spreads easily internationally.

Victims would first come across mentions of “WhatsApp Pink” in messages forwarded around WhatsApp groups, containing a link that promises to reveal a pink-themed WhatsApp.

There are even fabricated screenshots of texts in pink, according to India Today. You know, to convince you the app is totally real.

The link brings you to a site with an APK file download, the format of Android applications. Except, instead of a pink WhatsApp, you are really downloading a virus.

The virus then gains control over your phone, and hackers can do whatever they want with it. That’s scary.

The routine advice applies here: be extra cautious when you receive a link to some shady third-party website, even if the link promises billions in reward. Actually, especially if it promises you billions.

You can also report them as spam because, you know, these messages are literally scams.

Also, it would be worthwhile to note that WhatsApp updates are found on official platforms, and anything on a shady third-party website shouldn’t be trusted.

Not The Only WhatsApp Scam

This is not the only WhatsApp scam around. In fact, some nefarious variants are already rampant in Singapore.

In January, the Police cautioned the public to new forms of scams surrounding the takeover of WhatsApp accounts. 

In these scams, the victim would receive a WhatsApp message from a contact, asking for a 6-digit verification code that they also received out of nowhere.

In reality, the contact’s WhatsApp has already been taken over, and the verification code is exactly what the scammer needs to gain access to the new victim’s account too.

Kind of like a WhatsApp zombie scheme, if you think about it.

Scammers might also pose as WhatsApp officials purportedly investigating your account for misconduct and asking you for a verification code, or even deliberately key in the wrong verification codes.

The latter would prompt the real WhatsApp to call your phone number, and the call would go to your voicemail if it isn’t picked up.

Scammers would then use the default voicemail password telcos provide—that most people don’t change anyway—to extract the audio message, and take over the account.

The Police advise the public to enable two-step verification on their WhatsApp, and to change the default PIN of their voicemail accounts.

Though, I just wonder, what if all this cleverness wasn’t used on scams? We’d have world peace by now.

Featured Image: Eliseu Geisler / Shutterstock.com