Police warn Derbyshire residents to be vigilant over new Whatsapp voice message scam

Police have issued a warning to Derbyshire residents over a new Whatsapp voice message scam which has already compromised tens of thousands of email accounts.
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According to the National Cyber Security Centre, the scam is packaged in an email in which attackers impersonate WhatsApp’s voice message feature in a bid steal information from your device and potentially expose you to credential theft.

Cyber security researchers at California-based Armorblox report that nearly 28,000 mailboxes – across both Gmail and Microsoft’s Outlook program have been impacted by the ambush.

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A spoksperson for Derbyshire Constabulary said: “I would like to make you aware of fake WhatsApp voice messages spreading malware which the National Cyber Security Centre have recently warned of.

Derbyshire police have shared a warning about a new WhatsApp phishing scam. Image: Pixabay.Derbyshire police have shared a warning about a new WhatsApp phishing scam. Image: Pixabay.
Derbyshire police have shared a warning about a new WhatsApp phishing scam. Image: Pixabay.
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“The attack starts with an email claiming to be a notification from WhatsApp of a new private voice message. The email contains a creation date and 'clip duration' for the supposed message, along with a ‘Play’ button.

“The identity ‘Whatsapp Notifier’ masks a real email address belonging to a Russian road safety organisation. As the address and organisation are real, the messages won’t be flagged as spam or blocked by email security tools.

“The ‘Play’ button will take the email recipient to a website which then asks them to click ‘Allow’ in an allow/block prompt to ‘confirm you are not a robot’. Once ‘allow’ is clicked, the browser will prompt to install software that turns out to be information-stealing malware.

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“Please do not attempt to play any WhatsApp voicemails via a link in an email.”

Reports of scams, phishing and fraud can be made to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or via www.actionfraud.police.uk.

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