A series of fraud cases across three continents has highlighted the growing use of WhatsApp as a vector for financial crime, with victims ranging from elderly patients to corporate clerks, according to local authorities. In Malaysia, a 70-year-old retired government employee lost RM183,100 after being deceived by individuals posing as a corporate executive and a specialist doctor on Facebook Messenger, Muar district police said. Separately, a clerk in Tanjung Malim transferred RM970,000 to scammers who had compromised her manager’s WhatsApp account, using the genuine number to issue payment instructions, Muallim police confirmed.

In Brazil, civil police in Rio Grande do Sul launched an operation against a loan-sharking ring after a man who lost friends’ money in online gambling fled the state, leaving his family to face death threats via messaging apps. Two arrest warrants and 11 search warrants were executed, authorities said. In Goiás, a lawyer was arrested on suspicion of defrauding his own clients by promising to reduce property instalments, while in Minas Gerais a 22-year-old dental clinic receptionist was detained for allegedly tricking a 75-year-old patient into taking out a R$20,000 loan on her phone.

West African authorities reported similar schemes. A circuit court in Tarkwa, Ghana, sentenced four people for stealing a 13-year-old’s phone after posing as spiritualists, then selling the device. In Juapong, a mobile money vendor said she lost GH¢12,000 to a customer who used the funds for sports betting and then attempted to flee; the suspect was handed to police. The Ghanaian cases, like those elsewhere, relied on exploiting personal trust through direct interaction or digital impersonation.

WhatsApp’s parent company has introduced features such as silencing unknown callers and two-step verification, and is developing a birthday-reminder tool that will draw on contact data. German consumer advice outlets have urged users to activate these protections, noting that scammers often use foreign numbers to initiate contact. However, privacy controls for the birthday feature have not yet been implemented, and the platform has not confirmed a release timeline.

Investigations remain active in all jurisdictions, and no centralised data exists on the total financial impact. Police in Malaysia, Brazil and Ghana have urged the public to report suspected scams immediately to national response centres.