On WhatsApp is turning in recent hours a message that invites you to change your profile picture with that of a candle. It is a new chain letter
In the last few hours, a new chain letter is circulating on WhatsApp: it is the “candle of hope”, a solidarity initiative, completely virtual, towards Covid-19 patients. The initiative is having a very wide diffusion and in hundreds of thousands have adhered.
Somebody has also turned up his nose, assuming ulterior motives or even a hacker campaign for the spread of a malware. In reality, it is a message similar to what we have already seen in many other cases of virtual solidarity. But what does the new chain of the candle of hope on WhatsApp provide? Very simply to change their profile image with that of a candle. Nothing so problematic. Unfortunately, however, some have taken advantage of the situation to spread fake news about the initiative, claiming that it is a malware capable of resetting the smartphone. It is, as often happens in these cases, an artfully mounted hoax.
WhatsApp, the message of the new chain letter
If in the last few hours you have noticed that many of your WhatsApp contacts have changed their profile picture with a candle, it is not any satanic ritual or even a joke. On the messaging application was born a benevolent chain letter, which wants to pay tribute to all Covid-19 sufferers. In many groups is turning this message: Remove for the moment your profile picture and put the one of the candle of hope. Send it to all your friends so that for 24 hours they have the same profile for all the Covid-19 patients and so at the end we will see how many candles have been lit.” So if you notice some candles in the profile photos of your contacts, it is a person who has joined the chain of St. Anthony “candle of hope”.
WhatsApp: the candle of hope is a satanic rite?
The fake news in question is the one, which circulates of course always on WhatsApp, according to which in fact the candle of hope is a satanic rite: “Delete immediately all the candles you have put in social. It is a satanic ritual: March 24 is the feast of the beast and is prepared by lighting a candle on the 23rd evening. Notify those who have posted an image of a lit candle. Thank you.” This is a 100% hoax: there is no feast of the devil, nor any candle to invoke him.
WhatsApp: does the candle of hope hide a malware?
Well more legitimate, however, is the doubt that this chain letter may have been designed to spread one or more malware. In the past, many such chains have been used for similar purposes, with disastrous results for the users who took the bait. This time, however, this is not the case: there is no file to download, no link to click on, no app to install. There is only the invitation to take a picture of a candle, or to find a picture of a candle on the Internet, and put it as a profile picture on WhatsApp. That’s it: for once, then, a chain letter on WhatsApp doesn’t hide anything bad or dangerous. In times of coronavirus, this also happens.