WhatsApp is now a spammers' paradise in India – Rest of World

On July 18, Aishwarya Rao, a long-time WhatsApp user, was at her wit’s end when she decided to take to Twitter. “First it was email, then it was SMS. Now it’s WhatsApp — can’t escape the spam,” Rao tweeted, expressing frustration about her favorite messaging app turning into a spam box. That day, the first 10 messages on her WhatsApp were all boilerplate outreach from corporations, promoting products, deals, and discount coupons. Rao told Rest of World that she first began noticing business outreach messages on WhatsApp at the end of 2021, but, in the past six months, it has become incessant. Verified handles, bearing green check marks, from businesses such as shopping app Flipkart, retail chain Croma, delivery app Zepto, fashion store Lifestyle, insurance provider BankBazaar, and others are flooding her personal WhatsApp chats. “I don’t remember giving explicit permission to most of these businesses [to reach out to me through WhatsApp]. Especially the store ones,” Rao told Rest of Word, over Twitter direct messages. “Since you typically have to provide a [mobile] number for billing purposes, they don’t ever ask you if they can use it to reach out to you on WhatsApp.” Meta’s WhatsApp is wildly popular…
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