It happens all the time that an attractive person accidentally types the wrong number into their smartphone, writes in the first WhatsApp message (!) that they made a typo, but then still wants to continue the contact. No it does not!
So please do not enter into a dialogue with such “random acquaintances” because it is a scam.

A fake doctor

Back in May (see HERE ) we reported on an accumulation of WhatsApp messages that apparently came from attractive, young ladies who claimed that they hadn't contacted us in a long time, of course with a photo attached and a request to get in touch Report via Telegram (why not continue on WhatsApp?).

But female users are also the target of such scammers, like the alleged doctor who innocently writes to random women:

A “random acquaintance” on WhatsApp
A “chance acquaintance” on WhatsApp

According to the profile it is a Dr. Alex, the message is:

“Please don’t be offended that I sent you a message on WhatsApp. I tried to send a message to one of my old German friends who lives in Munich. Suddenly I entered the wrong number and it was you, so I have no choice but to text you”

Apart from the fact that there is a difference whether you write an SMS or a WhatsApp message, the message as a whole doesn't sound particularly credible. “ Suddenly ” entered the wrong number, then just continued typing. Because you had “ no other choice .” It's already clear.

Clue 1: The number

Of course, the message already indicates that the person is not from Germany (“ one of my old German friends ”), but the area code should still make you sit up and take notice: experience shows that the area codes +62 ( Indonesia ) and +63 ( Philippines ) are used very often Used to scam!

Note 2: The profile picture

A reverse image search is always a little complicated on a cell phone, but it's a little easier to do on a PC with WhatsApp Web: save the image and upload the image to Google or TinEye, for example, and use the image search. Searching on TinEye in particular provides us with helpful results in this case:

Search results by profile photo
Search results by profile photo

In various forums (see HERE , HERE and HERE ) that specialize in scam detection, people have been warning about scams with this photo for years, which actually shows the urologist Dr. David Samadi ( who is probably not happy about his photo being used by scammers).

What is behind this scam?

The possibilities for fraudsters are diverse, the most obvious being the so-called “ romance scamming ”, in which users are made to believe that they are in love and after a while they are asked for first smaller, then larger sums of money in order to supposedly pay for moving costs, flights and administrative costs to be able to.

The fraudsters do this very cleverly: They never ask for money straight away, but instead build up an apparent relationship of trust over weeks and months until you believe that you have actually found true love, for which you of course plunder your account in order to be with it to have each other.

Under no circumstances react!

Fraudsters usually arrive through leaked databases or simply by automatically sending randomly generated numbers to WhatsApp users.
A reply confirms to scammers that the number exists and is active, which opens up many possibilities.

For example, the now confirmed number can be used for ping calls (it only rings once, the user calls back out of curiosity and ends up with an expensive, paid announcement), as well as spam calls about supposedly winning competitions or sending malicious links possible.

Conclusion

It's actually quite simple: If you don't know a person, you shouldn't react, and in the above cases it's best to report them to WhatsApp straight away and block them.


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