MY WHATSAPP ACCOUNT WAS HACKED

By Johan Ferreira

On a Monday evening, whilst relaxing with a glass of red wine, the familiar sound of a WhatsApp message on my cell phone pinged. I looked at the screen and was pleasantly surprised to see that the sender was an old friend and colleague, Johan Deyzel from Kimberley.

When I opened the message, the message read that he was busy installing a new phone, and that he accidentally gave my cell phone number to the service provider to send a one-time-pin (OTP) to him. The OTP number was then sent to my WhatsApp. He requested me to urgently send the number to him, so that he could complete the installation of his phone.

As a rule, I never give my personal information or any OTP numbers to any unidentified person or caller, since I am well aware of the dangers involved of internet criminals and hackers who gain information on one’s computer or other online devices. But since I know Johan Deyzel very well, I had no reason to doubt this request.  I then forwarded the number to him that was sent to my phone.

A few minutes later, I tried to WhatsApp Johan to find out if he received the numbers. To my surprise, I could not find the WhatsApp icon on my phone. I immediately suspected that something fishy was going on. I then proceeded to send an SMS to him to find out what happened.

I received a short reply, only stating: “Sorry, my phone has been hacked”, and your phone was probably hacked as well’. 

I then tried to re-install my WhatsApp. This was unsuccessful since WhatsApp sends an OTP to the user for confirmation that I am the legitimate user of the app. I then realised that my WhatsApp account was removed/stolen from my phone and that someone was in possession of all the information on my WhatsApp account, and that the OTP was sent to this cell phone.  I then immediately shut down my cell phone, cancelled my bank accounts and spent a sleepless night, worrying whether my identity, life, privacy and livelihood has been stolen.

Since all this happened at night, I was powerless to do anything further until the next day.

The next morning, I went to my service provider to re-install my phone and all its applications. When everything was re-installed, I was relieved to see that only the WhatsApp account was compromised. All the other apps were still intact, and thankfully, my bank accounts were still in order.

Later, I phoned Johan Deyzel in Kimberley and found out that, apart from us, three other WhatsApp users known to him were hacked using the same modus operandi. One of them even replied with a “thank you” and a “kiss” emoji!

He also had to go to his service provider the next day for re-installations. I can only hope that he did not suffer any serious damage.

This experience has caused me to NEVER respond to any caller who wants ANY information about my personal affairs, unless I am absolutely certain that I am dealing with a legitimate caller; NEVER to respond to any unsolicited and unknown caller; and be especially suspicious of callers if it close to closing time, or during evenings.

There are unscrupulous criminals out there who will try everything to steal your identity and hard owned assets.

My advice to all people is to install every possible protection, like face- and fingerprint recognition apps on your devices and other means to protect your privacy. Never save your bank account numbers, ID-number and other private information on your phone or Facebook and other social media accounts. Refrain from common passwords, like your name and date/year of birth on your phone.

Even after all these measures …. We are still vulnerable, because as technology progresses, the “skelms” out there are nearly always ahead!