Beware! Chinese Numbers Starting With +86 Are Hackers Targetting Indian WhatsApp Groups

The Indian Army on Sunday released a video accusing Chinese hackers of targeting users in India via WhatsApp. The video, urging people to use the social messenger application safely, comes about four months after the Army had warned soldiers posted along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) against using a host of applications, including WhatsApp.

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Tweeting from the Indian Army¡¯s official handle, the Additional Directorate General of Public Interface (ADGPI) said the Chinese were penetrating the digital world.

¡°The Chinese use all kinds of platforms to penetrate your digital world. WhatsApp groups are a new way of hacking into your system. Chinese numbers starting with +86 barge into your groups and start extracting all the data,¡± a video tweeted by the ADGPI said.

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¡ª ADG PI - INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) 18 March 2018

The Army advised users to be vigilant and urged them to conduct regular audits of their groups to see if any number starting with +86 had joined a group.

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¡°In case you change the SIM, destroy it completely,¡± the video said. It went to add that information mined from such groups was being leaked to Chinese hackers.