It opens you up to malicious software.
Users of the popular messaging service, WhatsApp, have been urged not to click into a new spam message which gives you the option to customise the app.
The message which reads, “New colours for WhatsApp, now you can change your WhatsApp and leave it your favourite colours,” before saying it is available for IOS, Windows, Apple and Blackberry.
When the message appears, it gives you the option to “activate now” and you are also asked to share the message with 12 friends so that they too can activate and verify the new colour feature.
Once users have activated the new feature and verified their account, they are then told that WhatsApp’s colours can only be used via a desktop and that in order to make the new feature compatible, they need to install an extension called ‘BlackWhats’ from the Chrome Web Store.
But, both the message and the extension are fake and could end up with users installing viruses which will not only infect them, but the 12 friends they invited to join when they activated.
WhatsApp users have been victims of scam messages before. Earlier this year, a message was sent to millions of users saying that the messaging service would become chargeable.
It then added that the only way to stop the daily fee for using the service, was to forward the message to at least ten contacts.
WhatsApp then came out and said that it will always remain free clarifying that the message was clearly a hoax.
Having given advice on how to avoid such hoaxes, WhatsApp suggests users don’t interact with messages that instruct you to forward the message on, those which promise rewards or any which claim to be from WhatsApp itself.
A statement from the company said: “We always advise you to block the sender, disregard the message and delete it.”
