Imagine that you are in the middle of a job search, reviewing available offers and sending resumes. Suddenly, you receive a notification on WhatsApp about a group that promises easy jobs with good pay. The idea of making money quickly is tempting but You should be careful because it may be a typical WhatsApp group scam.. I tell you what these scams are like and what you should do to avoid them.
Anyone can be a victim of these scams
Every day these types of actions are more recurrent where any user You are added to a WhatsApp group and they try to trick you into offering your data. In fact, I myself have been added to these groups to be scammed, which is why I come to warn you how to avoid this situation. And anyone can be a victim of these annoying actions carried out by hackers and scammers anywhere in the world.
Although the language of certain "bots" used in these groups where they have put me in seems to be that they are from Spain. But before continuing, let me tell you my experience.
How WhatsApp group scams work
Firstly, they added me to a group (they started with a group and in the end they added me to several) where it was advertised, with well-written text that did not seem translated or made by artificial intelligence, a very well-paid job and very easy to do, . In the first group the work was to watch TikTok videos and hit "like", nothing simpler than that.
Then I knew it couldn't be anything other than the typical WhatsApp group scam. Likewise, other real users also realized this and directly wrote against the group, warning of the scam. You might think that if several users talk about a scam, the scam would falter and the group would probably be quickly reported. But it is not like that, since there are other users (fake accounts) that talk about how good the work is and the economic benefits it gives.
Phrases like «We pay you a commission so you can earn from €200 to €300 every day» and even «You can earn between €100 and €1000 a day by watching videos on TikTok!» They are what the group administrators say to get the attention of the users. And they are It is the bot accounts that add realism to the situation with phrases that question the work while they praise having received "x" amount of money.
This fake feedback from fake accounts It is well done because while some fake accounts talk about the benefits, how they can add to their family or the money they have earned; Other accounts try to lightly criticize the group and its function, saying phrases such as «But how does this work? That I have to do?
WhatsApp groups with dozens of fake bot accounts
Although on the other hand, as I said, we also have the comments from other real users that genuinely look authentic, with insults and a more colloquial way of speaking, something very difficult to see in bots that carry out these scams.
If you have been added to a group like these, the messages will be constant and attractive. They ask you to perform simple tasks, such as liking posts, sharing links, or completing small surveys. In exchange, they promise instant and substantial payments. The offers seem too good to be true, but since there are dozens of fake accounts that claim to have received their payment without problems, you can believe it.
So, if you don't know how to detect these types of scams, you must be very careful and avoid these groups. And in these groups there are accounts that will try to manipulate you into taking more risky actions, such as providing personal or financial information, making advance payments to "activate" your account, or downloading malicious applications.
So, how I have survived this and I have learned some tricks to avoid scams in WhatsApp groups, I'm going to explain to you how you can do it before it's too late.
How to avoid WhatsApp group scams
Several groups have added me to their lists to try to scam me, some of them I deleted thinking that they were something specific and that it would not happen again, but that was not the case. They added me to a different group every week, and when the time came, I decided to write this article and warn you about what may happen to you and how to avoid it.
I have already told you that they can take away your personal information, bank information and accounts or even gain access to your mobile phone. But here we are going to learn something else, we will learn to detect these scams. So I'm going to explain it to you in brief points.
- Pay attention to the numbers of the users within the group. You probably know what numbering is common in your country, in our case mobile phones can start at 6... or 7... Therefore, any number that does not start like that is unreliable.
- Write a comment that stands out as written by a human in which you encourage others to realize the scam. Many times, seeing a normal message warning that it is a scam can help us more than it seems.
- If the offer, as in my case, is too good, distrust. And, as they said in my family, nobody gives anything away. It is true that you can find a job offer on WhatsApp, but a job offer as a TikTok viewer for €10.000 per month is much harder to believe.
- Try to use common sense and look for information about the company behind the scam.
- Of course, if you end up trusting the group, never pay in advance or send personal or financial information to these groups.
You can configure WhatsApp so that they do not add you to groups
Now, if in the event that it is too late and you need to protect yourself, you have to report the group and configure WhatsApp so that they do not add you to a group again without your consent. Because in addition, the scammers behind this deception know that they have a limited period of time to achieve their goal. The moment they scam someone, they simply delete or deactivate the group.
To give you an idea, the groups to which I have been added last approximately one week before being closed by their administrators. And so that you know more, I tell you that They have names like Viento Norte 77 _10, Sound Cloud F2-4 or Google Maps 9.
So stay alert, be wary of easy jobs and report This typical WhatsApp group scam. If it seems too good to be true, it's not true. Remember to share this article with everyone to prevent scammers from winning.