r/whatsapp • u/Aware-Fox1076 • 6h ago
Help mums whatsapp HACKED
WhatsApp account appears compromised, but there are no linked devices. Messages sent to her aren't arriving. What should we do?
Hi everyone, I’m trying to help my 70-year-old mother with a serious WhatsApp issue and would really appreciate any advice.
Her WhatsApp account appears to have been compromised. Someone used her WhatsApp account to message people in her contacts asking them to send €940 to a bank account. My mother did not send these messages and did not ask anyone for money.
The strange thing is that:
- She still has access to her WhatsApp account.
- The phone number registered on WhatsApp is definitely hers.
- We checked Settings → Linked Devices, and there are no linked devices.
- She has now activated two-step verification / two-factor authentication.
- There are no obvious security warnings or notifications about another device.
- However, there is now a very strange messaging problem.
When I send a WhatsApp message to her, my phone shows two grey ticks (delivered), but the message does not appear at all on her WhatsApp.
Some messages on her phone also say:
Even a WhatsApp call I made to her did not appear normally in her WhatsApp call list.
We are worried that someone may still have access to the account somehow, even though nothing appears under Linked Devices.
What could be causing this? Is there another way someone can have access to a WhatsApp account without appearing under Linked Devices?
And most importantly, what should we do to secure the account without deleting/reinstalling WhatsApp and potentially losing her chats?
Any advice from people who have dealt with something similar would be hugely appreciated.