Internet Day is celebrated on February 07 every year. This year, the theme for the event is ‘Want to talk about it? Making space for conversations about life online”. The event was started as an initiative by the EU SafeBorders project in 2004 and later taken up by the Insafe network in 2005. Today, the Internet Safer Day is celebrated in more than 170 countries across the globe.
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Here is a guide for users to combat cybercrimes related to WhatsApp and how to stay safe:
Maintain privacy
It is crucial to keep your personal details private. We make digital payments several times a day, hence sharing sensitive information like address, phone number, passwords, bank card details should be avoided. WhatsApp users can hide their profile photo, last seen, online status, and more. Moreover, users can choose to share the above mentioned information on WhatsApp with everyone, their contacts or no one if they want.
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Add safety layers to an account
WhatsApp offers to provide an additional layer of safety to its users by activating the Two-Step Verification feature. It requires a six-digit PIN whenever users want to reset their account and verify their account details. The feature comes handy when a smartphone or SIM is probably stolen.
Limit the forwarding messages
Recently, the instant messaging platform has developed a label for all forwarded messages and started to restrict the number of times a message can be forwarded. This will help the users to reconsider important messages before randomly sharing it with others. Moreover, the Meta-owned platform has also added new group forwarding limits.
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Report scams immediately
With the dependence on the internet, the world is witnessing more and more cybercrimes everyday. OPT scams, job frauds, spam messages and phishing email attacks have risen day by day. These frauds are meant to steal personal information with disguised malwares. In order to avoid such frauds on WhatsApp, it is advisable to immediately long-press the WhatsApp message to block and report the account used to send it.
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Double check the messages to avoid fake news
Use the fact checking websites to double check any message received on WhatsApp to avoid fake news. Identify, review and verify information before sending any forwarded message to users.