Since the end of 2018, the chats of Italian users have been invaded by a strange message. What’s true behind the news that WhatsApp is going back to pay
If there was an award for the most repetitive hoax ever, it would be impossible not to nominate it. Despite the recurrent denials and the fact that it is no longer paid already for a five years or so, in the chats of the Belpaese is spreading the message that WhatsApp returns to pay from 2019. A hoax known, but not for everyone.
Some users, in fact, still fall for it and then cybertruffers periodically repropose the hoax-scam of WhatsApp to pay with the hope that the message will soon go viral and thus reach as many people as possible. The purpose is not only to see how many people take the bait, but to be able to spill them even a few euros. For this reason, the message is made to appear credible in the eyes of most: written in good Italian (strange fact, but true), it began to circulate in WhatsApp conversations from the last days of 2018, but has peaked in the very first days of 2019, reaping not a few victims.
WhatsApp paid, how the scam works
The WhatsApp paid message hoax explains that the new managers of the platform have decided they want to monetize the billions of users scattered around the world by transforming WhatsApp from a free app to a paid one. Although it is not specified what the annual amount should be, the message invites the user to make a one-time payment of 5 euros so that they no longer have to pay the annual subscription. The message concludes with a link on which to click to complete the payment process, so you can continue to use WhatsApp forever without being forced to pay anything. Obviously, this is just a scam: the messaging platform owned by Facebook is free and so will remain (probably) forever.