Overview
- Authorities in Spain, Mexico and Argentina this weekend reported rising cases in which criminals hijack or piggyback on WhatsApp identities to message victims’ contacts and request money.
- Galicia’s National Police flagged a marked increase in account‑usurpation complaints where victims keep access to their app while attackers send convincing requests from within real conversations.
- Mexico City’s cyber police warned that fraudsters use WhatsApp’s 'view once' images to intimidate recipients with false accusations and extort payments under threat of legal or reputational harm.
- In Córdoba, Argentina, a police operation produced four arrests and seized devices after an 80‑year‑old reported transfers totaling about 9,000,000 pesos, and national telecoms have filed complaints over smishing that redirects users to cloned operator sites.
- Officials and companies urge simple protections such as enabling two‑step verification, never sharing SMS or WhatsApp codes, avoiding links in texts, verifying money requests by voice call and preserving screenshots and numbers when reporting scams.