This is a new type of attack, though the originating numbers are from countries we’ve seen time and time again – China, India and US VoIP. Spammers create a group, add a selection of sequential numbers to the group in an attempt to hit as many WhatsApp users as possible, and then delete the group – making contact blocking irrelevant. Late last week we noticed an increase in spam messages again targeting users over WhatsApp and, while this latest wave of WhatsApp spam attacks is new, the technique spammers are using is not.Īs is obvious from these screenshots, the spammers are using group targeting to gain access to as many contacts as possible. Since then, we’ve detected an increase in spam messages over the various OTT applications.

With analysts predicting the decline in SMS revenues and a forecasted doubling of messaging traffic by 2019 (primarily in OTT messaging applications), it is evident spammers need to find new targets. The type of spam in itself was not unique, but the very fact that there was WhatsApp spam demonstrated a shift in the way spammers are planning their attacks. In January we reported on WhatsApp spam being received by Irish and UK subscribers in a wave of attacks.

Yet while this growth is significant, with it comes an increase in reported cases of spam messages. Within Ireland alone, over 43% of smartphone owners use OTT applications to connect with friends and family – including Skype, WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook Messenger. New data from mobile research specialists, Juniper Research, has found that the overall messaging market will fall in value by $600 million by 2019, while mobile and online messaging traffic will reach 160 trillion per annum by 2019, up from 94.2 trillion this year. The use of over-the-top (OTT) messaging services has grown exponentially over the past few years. Is fearr cosaint cliste ná ‘spam’ bhriste

Viber vs whatsapp 2015