Hackers have now turned their criminal activities to WhatsApp Accounts with the aim of using the contacts of the owners to defraud innocent victims, and also used the hacked contacts to disseminate fake news and information across the globe.

Penpushing reports that, the modus operandi of the fraudsters is to change the phone number of the original owners, replaced with their own numbers and change identity of the owners, and thereafter exploit people on the list of the owners on the contacts.

The investigations conducted by Penpushing revealed that, number of innocent users of the WhatsApp have fallen victims of these fraudsters who contacted their friends and family members for dubious assistance.

The news medium further reports that, the hackers also used the opportunity to embark on fake business transactions with innocent victims in the number of the WhatsApp groups, while one of the discovered fraudsters was noticed to be using mobile number 08161721730 for the illegal operations.

However, to prevent these fraudsters, users should take the following steps through their mobile phones: *Go to the : on your right handside*, *Select settings on your WhatsApp*,*Click on Account*, *Click on Two- step verification*, *Enter pin* (6 digits pin you will remember), Confirm your pin, *Input your email address* (Valid Email address), Confirm your email and save.

With these steps, if anybody, particularly suspected hackers attempt to operate to change identity of the owner, WhatsApp will ask for the Two-step verification and without it the account won't open.

Penpushing