WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram suffered a social
media outage on 3rd July which affected the users all across the
world. As a consequence of the outage, users were not able to access the
platforms properly and certain features became dysfunctional. During the
outage, a lot of people in India got messages on their WhatsApp telling that
the app is down due to over usage and it would be off from 11:30 PM to 6:00 AM every
day. The message also asked users to forward the text message to their contacts
in order to continue using the app service otherwise their account would be
made inaccessible and the app services will no longer be free of charge for
them.
The
fake message which was circulated on WhatsApp is as follows:
“What's
app will b off From 11.30pm to 6:00 am daily Declared by central govt. Message
from Narendra Modi (PM) we have had an over usage of user names on WhatsApp
Messenger. We are requesting all users to forward this message to their entire
contact list. If you do not forward this message, we will take it as your
account is invalid and it will be deleted within the next 48 hours. DO NOT
ignore my words or whatsapp will no longer recognise your activation. If you
wish to re-activate your account after it has been deleted, a charge of 499.00
will be added to your monthly bill. We are also aware of the issue involving
the pictures updates not showing. We are working diligently at fixing this
problem and it will be up and running as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperation
from the modi team. WhatsApp is going to cost you money soon. The only way that
it will stay free is if you are a frequent user i.e. you have at least 50
people you are chatting with. To become a frequent user send this message to 10
people who receive it (2 ticks) and your WhatsApp logo will change color. send
this to 8 people to activate the new whatsapp..
Saturday morning whatsapp will become chargeable. If
you have at least 10 contacts send them this message. In this way, we will see
that you are an avid user and your logo will become blue and will remain free.
(As discussed in the paper today. Whatsapp will cost 0.01€ per message. Send
this message to 10 people. When you do the light will turn blue otherwise
whatsapp will activate billing. ITS TRUE ...... U get blue TICKS"
Likewise,
another fake message claimed that WhatsApp has been sold off to Mukesh Ambani
and asks users to forward the message to 10 people in order to activate the new
WhatsApp along with Facebook services.
The entire message read:
"Dont
ignore please read it carefully" Hello, I. Am VARUN PULYANI director of
whatsapp, this message is to inform all of our users that we have sold whatsapp
to Mukesh Ambani . Reliance for 19 billion $. WhatsApp is now controlled by
mukesh Ambani . If you have at least 10 contacts send this sms and logo of your
whatsapp will change to a new icon with facebook's "f" within 24
hours.Forward this message to more than 10 people to activate your new whatsapp
with Facebook services or else your account will be deleted from new servers.
This is the final notice! Hello everyone, it seems
that all the warnings were real, the use of WhatsApp cost money from November
2017. If you send this string to 18 different on your list, your icon will be
blue and will be free for you. If you do not believe me see tomorrow at 6 pm
ending WhatsApp and have to pay to open it, this is by law This message is to
inform all of our users, our servers have recently been very congested, so we
are asking you to help us solve this problem. We require our active users to
forward this message to each of the people in your contact list to confirm our
active users using WhatsApp, if you do not send this message to all your
contacts WhatsApp will then start to charge you. Your account will remain
inactive with the consequence of losing all your contacts. Message from Jim
Balsamic (CEO of Whatsapp ) we have had an over usage of user names on whatsapp
Messenger. We are requesting all users to forward this message to their entire
contact list. If you do not forward this message, we will take it as your
account is invalid and it will be deleted within the next 48 hours. Please DO
NOT ignore this message or whatsapp will no longer recognise your activation.
If you wish to re-activate your account after it has been deleted, a charge of
25.00 will be added to your monthly bill. We are also aware of the issue
involving the pictures updates not showing. We are working diligently at fixing
this problem and it will be up and running as soon as possible. Thank you for
your cooperation from the Whatsapp team”
Users are advised to not believe such fake messages
and avoid spreading the misinformation further by forwarding it to other users.
