Online fraud is growing rapidly across the globe, resulting in significant financial losses for people. With advancing technology, hackers are deceiving people through emails, text messages, social media, and phone calls. A worrying new scam in India is about WhatsApp pictures that can steal people’s data and bank information, or even control their devices with just one click.
In a recent case, a Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh man lost Rs. 2 lakh after downloading a picture received on WhatsApp from an unknown number. This scam takes advantage of steganography, a technique employed by hackers to embed malware in what appears to be innocuous images. After the photo is downloaded, the virus becomes active, providing attackers with access to personal information, including banking details, UPI IDs, social media accounts, OTPs, and more.
What makes this scam particularly risky is the absence of any warning signs—no OTPs, alerts, or suspicious links—just a regular image file. This makes it more difficult to detect and trace the culprits.
To safeguard yourself, do not download pictures or click on links sent by unknown numbers on WhatsApp or other messaging services. Turn off media auto-download in WhatsApp settings, keep the software and antivirus of your phone updated, and check unknown numbers using apps such as Truecaller. Report the number as spam if you are called by someone suspiciously instructing you to download media.
If there is a cyber fraud, report it to the cybercrime helpline at 1930 right away. These photo-based frauds are spreading in India, and awareness is the key to safety.
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