The Policía Nacional de Jaén warned of a rise in complaints about attempted WhatsApp impersonation. In the pattern described by police, scammers send money requests through a person’s real account and an existing chat, while the account holder may stay logged in and never see the outgoing messages.
How the WhatsApp impersonation scam works
The request appears in a conversation the recipient already has with the person being impersonated. It comes from that person’s familiar number and contact name, so the exchange can look authentic even though someone else is sending the message.
The account holder may still be able to use WhatsApp normally. In most of the cases described by police, fraudulent outgoing messages did not appear on the account holder’s phone, even as contacts received them. Police also said people in the reported cases had not shared registration codes or PINs, scanned QR codes, or voluntarily linked their accounts to another person.
Why checking linked devices may not be enough
Reviewing WhatsApp’s Linked devices list can help you spot a session you do not recognize. But police cautioned that an unfamiliar session may not appear in the pattern it described, so a clean list alone does not rule out misuse.
The Policía Nacional recommends keeping the phone’s compatible operating system and WhatsApp up to date, turning on two-step verification, and closing any linked-device session you do not recognize. It also advises keeping SMS, QR, registration and verification codes, passwords, banking details and other sensitive information private.
Verify a surprising request before paying
Do not rely on a familiar number or chat history to authenticate an unexpected request for money. Police advises contacting the person through another channel—such as a phone call—to confirm the request before sending a payment.
What to do if your account sends messages you did not write
If someone tells you they received a suspicious message from your account, the police recommends alerting your contacts through another channel, reporting the impersonation to WhatsApp, preserving screenshots and details such as phone numbers, messages, dates and times, and filing a police complaint.
