Urgent - Scam re Whatsapp

This is fake news,
a hoax,
not true.

A friend also passed this on to me. It's an old hoax - a chain letter I think. The clue for me was in the warning that it was -about to happen. You don't get advance warnings of viruses usually.
I check out everything before forwarding.

This is a HOAX

Don't make it your last thread, tessagee. It would be a shame to do that just because you saw something you thought you should tell everyone about. Start one tomorrow on something entirely different.

Don't worry Tessagee. I thank you for your caring. And better safe than sorry.

I did not know that this was a hoax and if it has caused worry I can only apologise. As I said above, this was my first thread, it'll also be my last.

Anything that sounds either alarming or too good to be true, I check through the Snopes and Hoaxslayer sites. I have done for years, and I assure everyone that they are NOT hoaxes themselves. They have very sensible articles and advice.
www.snopes.com/ has a search box where you can enter a bit about anything suspicious and see what their research has come up with. Here is the coronavirus page - www.snopes.com/?s=coronavirus

www.hoax-slayer.net/ is also genuine.
quackwatch.org/ Quackwatch investigates health scams and bogus treatments. Some of the stories will make your hair curl!

This is all very interesting, and a distraction at the moment. The snopes video is saying the Martinelli thing is a hoax, so the OP was right. Everyone I’ve talked to, some in IT, have never heard of these hoax hackers. What scams were around 30 years ago? Certainly not internet ones. I shall do some research, and enjoy thinking about something else for a change?. Stay well everyone ?

This is from Snopes April 2018 www.snopes.com/fact-check/whatsapp-martinelli-phone-virus-warning/

Check this out! www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/whatsapp-martinelli-virus-2018-video-message-explained-what-to-do-a8711926.html

Yes. Be nice.
I fully agree with blueflinders

endlessstrife
I'm surprised that your daughter is un-aware of snopes. It's been going for a long time. Over 30 years.

Just for info, I spoke to my daughter tonight who is a software engineer and has never heard of “ hoaxslayer “ and “ snopes”. I don’t feel so inadequate now!

Be kind please. We aren’t all IT savvy and the poster was trying to help. If you can’t say anything nice then say nothing at all.

My daughter keeps getting messages supposedly from her brother, but they are definitely not,he doesn;t even have her no
The messages really just say he has been trying to ring her, but he hasn't

Tessagee thank you for trying to warn about a possible virus. Sadly the covid-19 isn't the only virus to fear. My DD had her mobile compromised yesterday and had to have her phone wiped clean. She lost photos and many important notes. It's most unpleasant when it happens for real, so glad this was a hoax.

Also, this was tessagee’s first post. I hope she doesn’t make it her last!

Not everyone is IT savvy and this is ‘gransnet’ which implies some users could be silver surfers and not aware of websites such as snopes. tessagee was only trying to help others and doesn’t deserve some of your harsh comments. Yes we have a lot to worry about at the moment, but surely we have a lot to be grateful for as well and belittling this ‘poster‘ for what she believed to be a helpful post is shameful.
Be safe, but just as important, be nice!

I feel silly now.

I stand corrected. When I said “ no harm done”, I meant if you assume it’s a hoax, which I do with most things, then you should be safe. It’s when you don’t see it may be a hoax, that harm could be done. Hope that is clearer. I also want to thank you tessagee, for trying. If it had wrecked everyone’s phones, then that would probably have had the same affect as wasting bandwidth!

Gosh what a lovely way to respond to someone who was only trying to help, albeit somewhat naively. After all, that welcoming to lurkers last week (when there was a chance of winning a prize) people are now being quite rude to someone who says they are a lurker and seems to be well meaning.
The response on here to @tessagee are the very reason I don’t use grandsnet anymore, it is now every bit as bad as mumsnet.
If you can't be kind be quiet.

HOAX

Thank you I'll inform all who I know who uses WhatsApp

I have a friend who blithely passes on ever single thing she receives. I am sick of telling her to check it out with Snopes. She also forwards all these silly ‘nobody loves me because.....please share’ messages, etc, even though they are, at best, money-makers for someone, and at worst putting viruses on your machine.
Basically, it is easier for her to press ‘share’ than to spend a few minutes checking it out. Of course, she could just ignore them all.

My DGS told me to always check things like this out on Snopes (first I knew of that site). However I’d rather know about something I can check than have the problems threatened in the scam.