The “black dot” message is circulating again and is causing smartphones to crash!
We received the first inquiries about this nasty trick at the beginning of May
We have now received inquiries again, this time the same message is sent in English:
Image in plain text:
If you touch the black point then your WhatsApp will hang
[vc_message message_box_color=“green” icon_fontawesome=“fa fa-check”]It is not a fake . WhatsApp actually crashes after tapping the message.[/mk_info]
This affects both Android and iOS devices. The messages initially look normal and contain seemingly unsuspicious text, such as “This is very interesting,” followed by a “crying, laughing” emoji. The message with the black dot sent as a request is also included.
What happens if you follow the instructions?
However, if you tap on the message, the system actually crashes. The device must be restarted because the visible text is irrelevant:
The message is packed with hundreds of invisible control characters.
This is a Unicode that defines the writing direction in order to be able to display Arabic or Hebrew correctly, for example. If the user taps on the message, it is apparently enough to let it repeat over and over again and the device crashes.
Not just limited to WhatsApp
Copying it on a macOS device also showed how resource-intensive the message can be. In addition, these messages are not only spreading on WhatsApp, but are also circulating on other messenger services such as Facebook Messenger.
You should avoid tapping these messages!
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