WhatsApp accounts hijacked in Kocaeli, victims asked for money

WhatsApp accounts in Kocaeli have been hijacked by scammers who then contacted the victims' close contacts to request money. The fraudsters used the compromised accounts to reach people the account holders communicate with frequently.

Heran Duman, a resident of Kocaeli, was one of the victims whose account was taken over. Messages sent from Duman's account claimed an emergency and requested 20,000 lira from each contact. Duman said she learned about the incident some time afterward and reported it to the relevant authorities.

Some of Duman's contacts sent money, but the funds were deposited into the scammers' own bank accounts. Duman stated that citizens cannot do anything against such fraud and urged people to stay alert and avoid falling for these schemes.

Associate Professor Mehmet Zeki Konyar from Kocaeli University explained that scammers exploit the Linked Devices feature to imitate account holders' writing styles using artificial intelligence. He noted that complaints about hijacked WhatsApp accounts have increased recently.

Konyar said a security vulnerability related to iOS, the operating system of iPhones, is being exploited. Through this vulnerability, messages are sent as if the victim had opened another WhatsApp session from a desktop computer.

Authorities advise users to check their linked devices and ignore messages claiming an account has been hijacked. Victims are encouraged to report incidents to the relevant judicial authorities.