With a billion users, WhatsApp is a widely used messaging app, but its popularity also attracts scammers. If you’ve received suspicious messages or fake deals, it’s crucial to report them. This guide will demonstrate how to track a scammer on WhatsApp. Although it will be a little tricky, we will present it in the easiest way possible.
How to Track a Scammer on WhatsApp
As technology advances, scammers have found new avenues to exploit, including social media platforms like WhatsApp. If you’ve encountered scams on WhatsApp and wish to learn how to track these fraudsters, this guide will navigate you through the process.
Explore these simple methods to effectively track and identify fraudulent individuals:
Note: We do not endorse any third-party apps that offer such services, therefore, use these at your discretion.
- Through Cybersecurity
Gather all information online about the scammer, such as their name, email address, phone number, and the links or messages that they send to scam you. By gathering all this information, you can report a complaint to the cyber security cell of your country or city.
- Through Reverse Phone Lookup Service
Fraudsters mostly use stolen phone numbers to scam. But somehow, if they are using their own phone number to scam, then you can easily track a scammer on WhatsApp by finding their name or address.
- Through GEO Finder
You can find out the scammer’s location by using the GEO Finder app. You can send a scammer’s phone number to the app via an SMS message over the GPRS network. It will track the location of the given phone number in under 15 minutes.
How to Report WhatsApp Scammer
Reporting scammers promptly is crucial to protect others from falling victim to their schemes. Once you have tracked a scammer on WhatsApp, follow these steps to report them and ensure the safety of others from potential scams.
- Launch the WhatsApp app on your device and tap on the three dots icon in the top-right corner of your screen.
- Now, tap on Settings.
- Tap on the Help option.
Next, tap on Contact us.
Now, tap Next to send the message.
Why Would Scammer Use WhatsApp?
The huge popularity of this platform is the main reason why scammers would use WhatsApp, but there are many more reasons behind this, such as:
- Scammers use WhatsApp to protect their accounts from getting banned.
- Sending malicious links on WhatsApp is the easiest way for scammers to scam. If you click on that link, they can hack into your personal data and information.
- Cellular calls are easy to track, but WhatsApp calls are harder to track. That’s the main reason why scammers use WhatsApp.
- Scammers use phone numbers to create accounts that are stolen from someone because it’s difficult for victims to find out that the number is illegitimate.
How to Identify a Scammer on WhatsApp
Now that you are aware of how to track a scammer, let us look at several ways in which you can identify them on WhatsApp:
- Most scammers use fake photos of common people to create an account. When you find someone pretending to be your friend or relative and using their profile photo, they are likely to be a scammer.
- If someone messages you that you have won a prize and asks you to deposit some amount of money to get this prize or asks for your personal information for document verification or OTP, then they are a scammer.
- If you receive any text message that has been forwarded five times, you will see a double arrow in place of one arrow. If you get an alert message in your inbox, then they are scammers.
How to Protect from WhatsApp Scam
Apart from reporting a scammer, you can follow these methods by which you can protect yourself from WhatsApp scams:
- Ignore unknown messages: If you get any messages from a person, you don’t know personally, don’t respond to their messages.
- Don’t click on any links: People get scammed by clicking on harmful links. These links may have viruses that can hack your device and data. So, avoid clicking on such links.
- Enable two-factor authentication: By enabling this feature, no scammer can access your profile unless you grant permission. This feature is designed to protect your account from online fraud.
- Don’t share personal information: If you are not sure about the person’s legitimacy, do not share your password, OTP, pin number, or credit card details. If someone asks for any of these, then immediately report them.
With the help of simple methods in this article, you can easily know how to track a scammer on WhatsApp. We trust that you have found these solutions beneficial. If you have any further questions or suggestions, please feel free to leave your valuable comments in the section below.