NEW DELHI: Millions of WhatsApp users in India have been baffled by the volume of international spam calls they have been receiving over the past few days, putting many at risk of financial loss. These spam calls with international numbers, mostly from African and South East Asian countries, along with fake messages from unknown users, have flooded WhatsApp and Indians have nowhere to go except Twitter.
Meta-owned WhatsApp has close to 500 million users in India. “What’s up with WhatsApp? So much spam. So much,” Gaurav Munjal, founder of Unacademy Group, posted on Tuesday.
Saurabh Mathur, an entrepreneur, tweeted, “WhatsApp business was a big mistake. Brian Acton (co-founder of WhatsApp) has been proved right.” Although the mobile numbers show the country codes of Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Ethiopia, it is not necessary that these calls are actually coming from these countries.
Most of these calls originate from +251 (Ethiopia), +62 (Indonesia), +254 (Kenya), +84 (Vietnam) and other countries. Ray Stings @Purba_Ray tweeted: “I keep getting missed calls on WhatsApp from unknown numbers from different parts of the world every day. It’s too bad, I have to put my phone on silent”.
WhatsApp is yet to comment on the increasing number of fake spam calls on its platform. New Delhi-based freelance journalist Shivam Vij posted, “Same here. Feels like a pandemic. @WhatsApp needs to allow us to receive calls only from contacts.”
Another affected WhatsApp user said: “I get those (scam calls) at 5am. Almost my daily morning alarm”. “That’s Jamtara Global for you,” wrote another. Another scam that is being reported in India is receiving job offers through WhatsApp messages.