CHENNAI: People are open to giving out personal details online. Whether it’s information about bank accounts or sharing personal photos, the amount of personal info available on different platforms is staggering. Because of this there is also a constant fear of hacking, or of these details being misused for wrong purposes. Experts always advise people to be careful about where they put their information and to verify if the website is legitimate.
The ISIS message that has been doing the rounds on WhatsApp – a message that several journalists of this newspaper received is an example. According to the message, users were warned of their WhatsApp profile picture would be used by the ISIS for wrong reasons.
The message read, “If you have put your own pic in your display picture, then remove it immediately because ISIS is trying to capture it and they have hackers who will use it in a wrong way......” While the informal way in which the message is written is enough to raise a false signal, the message goes on to say that the WhasApp CEO has asked that the display picture to be removed for the next 20-25 days and also claims that “WhatsApp engineers are trying their best to keep the app safe”.
As if invoking the CEO wasn’t enough, the message is attributed to Delhi Commissioner A K Mittal with a phone number as well. Even if such an asinine thing were to be true, it would definitely not be passed on through a WhatsApp message. So rest assured, this was a hoax message to spread fear.
Even if users did believe the message, they would be able to find out for themselves that it is false if they tried calling the number that is allegedly Mittal’s.
When City Express tried the number, the line was disconnected after just a single ring, and a recorded voice-message comes through in English and even in Telugu. So naturally, this is not a Delhi-based number, and it certainly doesn’t belong to Commissioner Mittal.
Therefore users can safely change their profile pictures as often as they like with no fear of the ISIS.