Apparently, WhatsApp has become the perfect tool for cybercriminals and scammers to do their things. This time it is one of the most difficult scams to identify by the victims: the lost chip.

That is because the scammer steals a person’s phone number, blocks the original line and impersonates the victim to extort his contacts. The criminal buys a new chip and calls the telephone operator and pretends to be the original SIM card user. After this, he says he lost his cell phone or was a victim of theft, so the plant reactivates the number on the new chip.

Does it seem easy? Well, it is. Criminals do this without entering the mobile device. In this way, they have access to the WhatsApp contact list and come into contact with friends and family of the victim to extort them. Many fall into the trap since with the name and photo of the trusted person they can request payments for urgent medical treatments or the return of debts.

Bruno Almeida, data security specialist and director of innovation at Mandic Cloud, says the solution is to activate two-step verification. Thus, scammers will need a second confirmation by SMS or email, the latter being the safest.

Two-factor authentication (or two-step) is a good way to have the most protected data. For example, in WhatsApp, the option is called “two-step verification”. To access you must go to the settings of your application, click on “account” and then “two-step verification”, both Android and iOS.

The application will ask you to choose a six-digit password, which they will ask you occasionally. To enable it, you must first enter your username. Then you must provide a second authentication: a fingerprint, a voice command, a password or an SMS code to your mobile phone.