Whatsapp

from the shutting-it-down dept It’s funny just how often the actions of so-called “strong men” actually show just how scared and fragile they are. And if you want a more specific example of what I’m talking about, you can typically tell when a national government is feeling scared or weak, because that usually comes along with restrictions on a free and open internet. Worried that your horror-show of a government from a human rights standpoint might generate pushback and protests? Construct the Great Firewall of China. Concerned that social media sites might serve as rallying points against your election in Brazil? Have the actual police actually police the internet for anything you don’t like. Launched a war of aggression against your neighbor because you thought you could annex an entire country in a few months, only to find out that you’re in a prolonged war of attrition that your own people might get severely tired of? Well, then you do what the Kremlin did, and iteratively crackdown on internet access and freedoms over several years. And Putin isn’t stopping. Russia appears to be degrading performance or access to some targeted internet sites, such as YouTube, while also building out state-controlled

WhatsApp Image 2025-08-08 at 15.25.13_80a946a2.

Published August 7, 2025 Scam groups use fake investments, crypto fraud, and social media manipulation to deceive victims across platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, and TikTok. Image: unsplash/Amanz WhatsApp has removed more than 6.8 million accounts associated with international scam operations, particularly those operating out of Southeast Asia, in the first half of 2025. The announcement, made by parent company Meta, highlights the growing threat of organized cyber scams, many of which are linked to scam centers in Southeast Asia. Meta confirmed the takedown in a published statement on Tuesday, explaining the accounts were proactively removed “before scam centers were able to operationalize them.” The company noted that many of these centers are coordinated by organized criminal syndicates and rely on coerced labor. These groups employ a variety of deceptive tactics, including fraudulent investment schemes, cryptocurrency cons, and manipulative activity across social media platforms. According to Meta, scammers frequently initiate contact through text or dating apps, then transition across multiple platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, or TikTok. The aim is to make it difficult for any one platform to track the full extent of the fraud. In one coordinated bust, Meta, WhatsApp, and OpenAI worked together to take down a scam network

Two malicious npm packages have emerged as sophisticated weapons targeting WhatsApp developers through a remote-controlled destruction mechanism that can completely wipe development systems. The packages, identified as naya-flore and nvlore-hsc, masquerade as legitimate WhatsApp socket libraries while harboring a devastating kill switch capable of executing system-wide file deletion through a single command. Published by npm user nayflore using the email address , these weaponized packages have accumulated over 1,110 downloads within a month, demonstrating their effectiveness in infiltrating developer workflows. The malicious libraries exploit the growing WhatsApp Business API ecosystem, which now serves over 200 million businesses globally, creating an attractive target environment where developers routinely install third-party packages for chatbot development, customer service automation, and messaging integrations. Socket.dev researchers identified the sophisticated attack mechanism embedded within what appears to be standard WhatsApp integration functionality. The malicious code specifically targets the requestPairingCode function, a legitimate component that developers would naturally invoke during WhatsApp bot authentication setup. Remote Kill Switch Architecture The packages implement a particularly insidious attack vector through their phone number verification system. Upon execution, the malicious code retrieves a remote database of whitelisted phone numbers from a GitHub repository using Base64 obfuscation:- const sesiPath = "aHR0cHM6Ly9yYXcuZ2l0aHVidXNlcmNvbnRlbnQuY29tL25hdmFMaW5oL2RhdGFiYXNlL21haW4vc2Vza2E"; // Decodes

Meta took down 6.8 million WhatsApp accounts tied to scam operations on Tuesday after victims reported financial fraud schemes.

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WhatsApp says it has banned over 6.8 million accounts linked to global scam operations as part of a major crackdown on criminal messaging networks. In a statement on Monday, the Meta-owned platform said the accounts detected and removed in the first half of 2025 were linked to scam centres that deploy tactics such as deepfakes, cloned voices, and cross-platform fraud. Kojo Boakye, Meta’s vice-president of public policy for Africa, Middle East and Türkiye, said the new wave of enforcement is part of broader efforts to disrupt coordinated scams before they spread. “This is part of our unwavering commitment to protect our users, not just by banning malicious accounts, but by empowering individuals with the tools and knowledge they need to recognise and avoid these sophisticated threats,” he said. The platform also announced new in-app features to help users better identify suspicious contacts and avoid falling victim to fraud. One of the updates allows people to see more context before engaging with unknown senders, especially when added to group chats by people outside their contact list. WhatsApp is also working to encourage users to “pause, question, and verify” before responding to messages that appear unusual or demand urgent action, such as

Wed, Aug 6, 2025, 1:07 AM 2 min read In This Article: This story was originally published on Social Media Today. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Social Media Today newsletter. Meta has announced some new measures to protect WhatsApp users from scam activity, including improved insight into group requests, and updated alerts for individual chat requests. First off, on group messaging. WhatsApp’s rolling out a new safety overview that will be displayed when someone who’s not in your contacts adds you to a new WhatsApp group. As you can see in this example, you’ll now get an overview of the group’s info before you join, which will also include tips on how to avoid scam activity. As per WhatsApp: “From there, you can exit the group without ever having to look at the chat. And if you think you might recognize the group after seeing the safety overview, you can choose to see the chat for more context. Regardless, notifications from the group will be silenced until you mark that you want to stay.” The up-front alerts about potential scams could be a significant deterrent, prompting more people to think twice before joining such.

A woman and her contracted grandma – credit, Client Partners When a Japanese handyman contractor faced an oversaturated market, they turned to a pretty unusual solution: a ‘rent-a-grandma.’ With few other jobs available for women over 60 other than house cleaners, the company realized that for the same reason a person might want to hire a male handyman in his 60s during a homebuilding project, someone might want to hire a grandmother for a homemaking project. Tokyo’s Client Partners started the OK! Obaachan (OK! Grandmother) service in 2011, and it’s become a hit. “I never get bored,” 69-year old Taeko Kaji, one of the rent-a-grandmas, told the Australian ABC. “I get to go out and have these experiences and that’s why taking this job was the right decision for me.” Client Partners allows customers to hire the services of guides and interpreters, but concern in Japanese society over run-of-the-mill, big city loneliness gave the company the idea to start renting friends, ‘aunts,’ and now even grandmothers. “Some people may never have had a mother in the first place,” Client Partners chief executive Ms. Ruri Kanazawa told the ABC. “Our grandmother staff members, who cook for the guests and act like a

Photo by Amanz / Unsplash If you’re active on WhatsApp, you’ve probably noticed how fast your phone's gallery can fill up. From random memes in group chats to videos you didn’t ask for, media from WhatsApp tends to sneak into your camera roll without warning. This can quickly turn your gallery into a mess and eat up storage space that could be better used elsewhere. I remember scrolling through my photos app only to find hundreds of images I didn’t even remember receiving. It was frustrating, especially when I was trying to find something important I had actually saved. The good news is: WhatsApp gives you full control over how media is handled. You can stop it from saving automatically to your device, keep your photos and videos inside the app, and download only what matters to you. How to delete your WhatsApp account Ready to quit WhatsApp for good? Here’s how to delete your account. Techloy Oyinebiladou Omemu Step 1: Open the WhatsApp app and click the Settings icon in the bottom-right corner Step 2: Click "Chats" Step 3: Toggle off the Save to Photos option Step 1: Open WhatsApp, tap the three-dot menu in the top-right corner, and