A message is circulating on WhatsApp warning users of the presence of a virus in the good morning and good night pictures: it’s a fake news
“Hello…If you don’t already know…I’m warning you that from tomorrow no goodnight and good morning with photos.Please warn all the contacts of your list not to open and send good morning and good night photos, there are some that are viruses that will format your cell phone. Be careful, it is very dangerous. They announced today to Rai TV, Mediaset premium, La 7, Sky tg 24 and other TV and radio stations. Spread as much as you can ONLY WRITTEN WORDS”.
If in the last days you have received this message and you have immediately forwarded it to friends, relatives and within groups to warn them of the danger, you must know that you have contributed to the spread of a fake news. It is, in fact, a hoax message created specifically by some good-timers to create panic among WhatsApp users. Despite the fact that messages and images that wish good morning or good night are among the most popular of the social application, there is no danger of virus: you can continue to send and receive them without fear.
Virus on WhatsApp: the whole truth
The message hoax that in these days is running on WhatsApp is not really new: we had already talked about it some time ago, warning users and inviting them not to share it with friends. For what reason it is spreading again on WhatsApp? Very simple, some prankster has decided to exploit the long wave of the scandal that has hit the application in recent days (the bug discovered by the Financial Times that allowed hackers to install spyware and control the smartphone remotely) to make believe that the pictures of good morning and good night hide a virus.
To stop the phenomenon of spam and fake news that now affects WhatsApp for at least a couple of years, the application’s engineers have also tried to limit the number of times you can forward a message. Unfortunately, however, no solution has managed to solve one of WhatsApp’s biggest problems.
Do viruses exist on WhatsApp?
Let’s start with an established fact: images and videos shared on WhatsApp do not hide viruses or malware. The danger for users comes from documents (for example, a Word or an Excel file) and the flaws in the application: hackers can exploit them to infect the device with sneaky techniques that are difficult to stop. So, if you receive a document from a number you don’t know, don’t download it, it might be hiding a virus.