Criminals might use GhostPairing to hijack your WhatsApp account heres how
to stop them

Date:
Fri, 19 Dec 2025 11:28:40 +0000

Description:
'GhostPairing' could give criminals access to your WhatsApp account, but
there are ways to prevent this happening.

FULL STORY ======================================================================A new WhatsApp scam called 'GhostPairing' has been discovered This tricks users
into giving a criminal access to their account The attacker can then commit identity theft and scam others

Theres no shortage of ways that hackers and other criminals will attempt to gain access to online accounts, but now another has just been discovered, and this specifically relates to WhatsApp.

Gen Digital (via Bleeping Computer ) has discovered a WhatsApp account takeover approach that its dubbing GhostPairing and when a criminal successfully carries this out, it gives them full access to your WhatsApp account, potentially without you even realizing. So its worth knowing what to look out for.

The attempt starts by the victim being sent a message from one of their contacts, generally saying something like Hey, I just found your photo, followed by a link. That link will appear with a Facebook-like preview, as
you can see in the image below, but the link itself wont actually take you to Facebook. A GhostPairing WhatsApp scam message (Image credit: Gen Digital)

Instead, it will take you to a page hosted by the criminals thats designed to look like Facebook, and will ask you to log in to your account before you can see the content.

That process will involve providing your phone number and then either
scanning a QR code or entering a numeric code into WhatsApp, but in either case, what its actually doing is using WhatsApps device linking function to link the criminals device to your WhatsApp account.

During this process your WhatsApp account should alert you that another
device is attempting to access to your account, which will hopefully be
enough of a red flag for most people, but inevitably some will miss this.

Those who do follow the steps on the fake Facebook page will give the
criminal full access to their WhatsApp account from a linked device that includes conversation histories, shared media, and of course the ability to message a users contacts. A GhostPairing scam page imitating Facebook (Image credit: Gen Digital)

With this, the attacker can attempt to impersonate a user and commit fraud or extortion, and of course they can also then play the same trick on any of the users contacts.

If theyre careful enough, they could even remain unnoticed in the users account for a long time. Remove and prevent access

There is a way to check whether this has happened to you just open WhatsApp and head to Settings > Linked devices, from where youll be able to see a list of any devices linked to your account. If there are any that you dont recognize, you can revoke their access.

As far as avoiding falling victim to GhostPairing in the first place, you should always be wary of being sent links, even from friends and family, and especially if they include just a vague message that seems designed to motivate you to click.

Look carefully at the URLs too, since in this case theyre pretending to be Facebook but the actual URLs used are very different. And finally, if you do click a link, think twice before entering any sensitive details (or scanning
a QR code) on any page it sends you to. In this case, WhatsApp will actually tell you what the code youre entering does, so make sure to carefully read anything involved in the process too.

And while this attack is specifically for WhatsApp, similar methods have been used for other messaging apps too, so be wary whatever youre using.

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/criminals-might-use-ghostpairing-to-hijack-yo ur-whatsapp-account-heres-how-to-stop-them


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