[REVISION HISTORY]

WhatsApp identity theft and evolving digital fraud

Updated 7 times since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.

What changed

2026-09-10 09:03 UTC → 2026-09-11 10:44 UTC · added ~~removed~~

A series of identity theft attempts via WhatsApp has been reported involving public figures in South America. In Argentina, journalist Sergio Lapegüe alerted the public to a scam where an individual impersonated his daughter to claim her phone had broken. Colombian Senator Antonio José Correa Jiménez also reported impersonators using his name and official title to fraudulently manage administrative procedures. Law enforcement agencies in Spain, Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico have issued warnings regarding evolving fraud and extortion tactics. A prevalent method involves attackers gaining access to a user's account without logging them out, allowing criminals to send messages from the victim's real number to request urgent money transfers. In Spain, this has caused significant financial losses in regions such as Castilla y León, Madrid, and Navarra. Recent warnings from authorities in Spain, Italy, and Macau highlight increasingly sophisticated methods, including ‘zero-click’ attacks. These attacks, which particularly affect Apple devices running outdated iOS versions, allow criminals to compromise accounts without any user interaction. Once inside, scammers can coexist with the legitimate user to send fraudulent messages, often requesting approximately €1,000. ~~Other emerging tactics include the misuse of WhatsApp’s ‘view once’ photo feature,~~ In Spain, the ~~use of fake business accounts to send phishing alerts,~~ Guardia Civil and ~~the ‘Hello, father... Hello, mother’ scam~~ National Police have specifically identified a surge in ~~Portugal.~~ fraud in Huelva and Galicia. In Huelva, over 50 cases of ‘zero-click’ fraud were identified affecting iPhone users on iOS 16.7.12 or earlier. In Galicia, criminals have been reported impersonating victims to contact acquaintances via existing chat threads, often providing foreign bank details for urgent transfers. In Germany, authorities have identified ~~new~~ variations where scammers use WhatsApp to impersonate known contacts to trick victims into clicking malicious links, such as voting for contest participants. Additionally, fraudulent emails in Germany are utilizing AI-generated imagery of news presenters to promote fake products. Newer phishing schemes in Germany involve hijacking accounts through links. These include fraudulent voting requests, such as messages regarding a girl named ‘Klara’ needing scholarship votes or fake Spotify podcast ~~contests.~~ contests involving a purported collaboration between Spotify and Google.

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