Caution: WhatsApp URL that claims to change colour theme is an adware

Looks like the cyber world is reeling under some kind of crisis. While WannaCry is still wreaking havoc across the globe, a new adware has been spotted circulating around the web that tricks you to visit ‘шһатѕарр.com’. Notably, this isn't the official WhatsApp link, rather a fake URL that uses characters from the Cyrillic alphabet and can potentially harm your device.

First spotted by a Reddit user account u/yuexist, the fake web link tricks users offering them to install WhatsApp in differently themed colour. However, on visiting the link, it asks you to share the website with your other contacts in the list for ‘verification’. Upon this, the contact you share the link with receives a message that says, ‘I love the new colour for WhatsApp’ and asks them to follow the link to do the same.

Apparently, once you’ve ‘verified’ yourself, comes another message that says WhatsApp’s colours can only be accessed on a desktop, and are asked to install an extension from the real Chrome Web Store called BlackWhats.

TheNextWeb reported the malicious Chrome extension to Google which has now removed it from the Chrome app store.

P.S. Do not click or open any suspicious links, file, download attachments or emails received from unknown sources.