WhatsApp’s increasing popularity globally has increased the circulation of spam messages. Anyone from your contacts to unknown users can send you Spam messages. This article will describe how to spot three common WhatsApp spam & practical ways to stop them.
How to Know if Whatsapp Message is Spam
WhatsApp users have experienced or seen diverse kinds of WhatsApp spam messages with a unique format. The below three are most common these days on WhatsApp to trick users into taking specific actions.
Suspicious links
WhatsApp has become flooded with spammers who may or may not be part of your contacts. You can recognize suspicious links like you do for SMS & Emails. Here are some clues which may assist you in recognizing the suspicious message links.
Hence, you can decide whether to trust the sender & open the suspicious links.
- Most suspicious links direct you to open websites & make the payment.
- Asking you to download an App that may contain malware.
- Have grammatical mistakes.
- Asking you to activate new features via links.
- Asking you to pay to access WhatsApp
Don’t tap on such WhatsApp messages containing suspicious links unless you trust the sender & are sure about the website. Mainly, such links are created to steal users’ confidential data like login credentials, contact details & financial information.
Login requests
You must have seen or received email messages from trusted websites & banks for login requests, two-factor authentication, OTP verification, password recovery emails, payments, and more. Genuine websites avoid using WhatsApp for tasks that involve the security of users’ data. If Anyone sends you a suspicious text message on WhatsApp making Login requests, it’s wise to consider it spam.
Frequently forwarded messages
Often, your WhatsApp contacts can send you spam messages unintentionally in the form of Frequent forwarded messages. It has become an everyday activity for spammers.
Frequently forwarded messages can be drafted as fake news, viral rumor, or more to capture the attention of a large user base. Such messages are common in large WhatsApp groups.
WhatsApp has taken a significant step to assist you in recognizing the frequently forwarded messages. If any user forwards a message more than 5 times, WhatsApp puts the “Forwarded many times” label at the top with an “arrow” icon.
WhatsApp has put a counter on a “forward” message to find how many times users forward it. If you receive such spam messages, we suggest you pause this chain & don’t forward them to another user.
How to Stop WhatsApp spam
It may not be possible to stop all spammers simultaneously. The below three solutions help you at an individual level to stop WhatsApp spam.
Opt out of groups
You can quit WhatsApp groups that remain attacked with spam messages. Also, You can decide who can add you to a WhatsApp Group. Let’s look at the steps to quit a WhatsApp Group on different devices.
On Android.
- Open the WhatsApp group you want to quit.
- Tap on the “three vertical dots” icon in the top-right corner.
- Tap on “More.”
- Tap on “Exit group.”
- Tap on the “Exit” option.
On iPhone.
- Open the WhatsApp group you want to exit from.
- Tap on the name of the WhatsApp group.
- Tap on “Exit Group”
- Select the “Exit Group” option.
Steps to stop an unknown or specific user from adding you to a WhatsApp group on an Android.
- Open your WhatsApp app.
- Tap on the “three dots” icon from the top-right corner.
- Tap on “Settings.”
- Tap on “Privacy.“
- Scroll down & select “Groups.”
- You can choose who can add your groups. Tap on “My contacts” to allow your contacts to add you to any group.
Report spammers
If you have gotten frustrated from receiving spam messages from a specific contact, you can report them to WhatsApp. We are not sure about the actions WhatsApp takes against reported accounts.
Steps to report a contact on an Android.
- Open the conversation with the user you want to report.
- Tap on the “three dots” icon & select “More.
- Tap on “Report.”
- Tap on the “Report” option again.
Steps to report a contact on an iPhone.
- Open the conversation with the user you want to report.
- Tap on the WhatsApp contact name.
- Top on “Report Contact.”
- Tap on the “Report and Block.”
Block a spammer
You can block a spammer permanently if you don’t want to receive any WhatsApp messages from them in the future. Here are the steps to block any contact on different devices.
On Android.
- Open the chat of the contact you want to block.
- Tap on the “Three vertical dots” icon in the top-right corner.
- Tap on the “More” and select the “Block” option.
- Again, Tap on “Block.”
On iPhone.
- Open the chat of the contact you want to block.
- Tap the user’s contact name.
- Tap on “Block Contact.”
- Again, select the “Block” option.
