As the Diwali 2026 festive season gains pace in India, online shopping platforms announce offers and discounts across product categories. During this time period, fraudsters evolve their strategies of messaging and calling to impersonate genuine accounts, plant malicious payment links and embed fake ‘.apk’ packages (among other things) to take over access to your phone and rob the hard-earned money of people. One such medium that becomes a hotbed of such scams during this season is the widely popular messaging app WhatsApp.
Fraudsters promise unbelievable discounts, attractive giveaways, free coupons and more to lure people to fake payment links and initiate parcel-delivery scams. In some cases, a sense of urgency, impersonation of government officials and threats of legal action may be used to frighten a WhatsApp user. However, the Meta app has several features to help people spot such activity. For a better idea, here are the five safety measures you can use on WhatsApp to stay safe from scams.
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Users can choose to Silence Unknown Callers to stop unknown people from bothering you at the first ring. While these call records will still be visible in the Calls tab, this can help avoid the sense of urgency linked to urgent call-to-action. WhatsApp claims this can help people screen out scams, spam, and unknown calls. The feature can be enabled from Settings > Privacy > Calls.
WhatsApp claims Android users will now see more information about a caller who is not in your phonebook. The details will include information on whether the caller is a common group member and whether the mobile number’s country of origin is outside India.
This identity verification method is an extra layer of security to prevent easy takeover of your WhatsApp account. WhatsApp says it is evolving the traditional six-digit PIN to a password that can include alphanumeric and special characters and supports longer inputs.
If you spot a suspicious message promising massive discounts and windfall gains from an unknown caller, you can consider blocking and reporting them. Make sure to not click on links shared in the message or download any attachments. Plus, the context cards for these chats can give you information such as whether the account was created recently, whether if you have a group in common with the unknown number, the country of origin of the SIM and more.
In some cases, a scammer may mislead people to gain access to their WhatsApp account using the Linked devices feature. The Meta app can issue alerts if the linking attempt appears suspicious. WhatsApp may show the details like the origin of the request and a warning that it might be scam to give room to people to rethink before making the final tap.
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While sharing a linking code or scanning a QR is not recommended, always review the devices accessing your WhatsApp account from the Linked Devices option in Settings and log out if you find a suspicious device. Finally, WhatsApp users should remember that no Indian law enforcement body connects with defaulters via phone or video calls for investigation purposes. Hence, such requests should not be entertained. However, if you fall prey to a scam, report the matter to the cybercrime department immediately.