{"id":1723,"date":"2020-09-07T07:55:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-07T05:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=366388"},"modified":"2020-09-07T07:55:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T05:55:00","slug":"beware-scary-messages-circulating-on-whatsapp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/2020\/09\/07\/beware-scary-messages-circulating-on-whatsapp\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware \u201cscary messages\u201d circulating on WhatsApp"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

WABetaInfo<\/strong><\/a> has detailed how certain messages are being circulated that will cause WhatsApp to freeze \u2013 even if you exit and re-enter the app.<\/p>\n

The user then needs to delete and reinstall WhatsApp, which can result in them losing their chat history.<\/p>\n

These messages, which WABetaInfo has called \u201cscary messages,\u201d comprise a variety of weird characters which seemingly make no sense.<\/p>\n

However, these strange characters are not only confusing to you \u2013 WhatsApp either interprets the message incorrectly or is unable to render the message completely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe combination of these characters create a situation where WhatsApp isn\u2019t able to process the message, determining an infinite crash,\u201d said WABetaInfo.<\/p>\n

Many of these messages are reportedly in the form of VCards, where if you open the VCard, the contacts have long and strange names \u2013 which are actually crash codes.<\/p>\n

These VCards can also contain payloads to cause further problems for affected users.<\/p>\n

There are reportedly many secret WhatsApp groups where users share these codes with the purpose of crashing WhatsApp for users on specific platforms.<\/p>\n

How to protect yourself<\/h3>\n

WABetaInfo said that there isn\u2019t an effective and general fix to this issue.<\/p>\n

The best way to protect yourself if you receive a message that appears to be one of these \u201cscary messages\u201d is to block the contact on WhatsApp Web.<\/p>\n

However, if WhatsApp Web isn\u2019t able to reach your device \u2013 because the app is crashing \u2013 you will need to reinstall WhatsApp, which will result in you losing your chat history.<\/p>\n

Therefore, WABetaInfo also recommends backing up your chat history at least once a week.<\/p>\n

Additionally, WABetaInfo suggests that you set your group privacy setting to \u201cMy Contacts\u201d so that unknown contacts can\u2019t add you to groups with these crash codes.<\/p>\n

It noted that the issue appears to be particularly prevalent in Brazil based on the users that have discussed the issue with WABetaInfo on social media.<\/p>\n

However, the nature of the Internet is such that anyone using WhatsApp is at risk.<\/p>\n

Now read: The best smartphones you can buy for under R10,000<\/a><\/h3>\n

Source: MyBroadband<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WABetaInfo has detailed how certain messages are being circulated that will cause WhatsApp to freeze \u2013 even if you exit and re-enter the app. The user then needs to delete and reinstall WhatsApp, which can result in them losing their chat history. These messages, which WABetaInfo has called \u201cscary messages,\u201d comprise a variety of weird […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1723\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interwebdev.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}