Millions of WhatsApp users across the planet are being warned not to be fooled by a new fake message.
The shocking scam, which was first spotted by reddit user yuexist, attempts to trick fans of the popular service by suggesting a range of new customisable colours are now available.
The fake message, which is not from WhatsApp, states that, “Now you can change your WhatsApp and leave it with your favourite colour.”
It seems that once the message is received users are then asked to share it with 12 friends to activate and verify the new custom colour feature.
Once users have ‘verified’ themselves, they are then told that WhatsApp’s colours can only be used via a desktop and, to make the new feature work, they are asked to install an extension called BlackWhats from the Chrome Web Store.
However, the message and extension are actually fake and could end up with users installing nasty adware along with infecting 12 of their friends at the same time.
This isn’t the first time WhatsApp users have been victims of scam messages.
Earlier this year a message was sent millions of times stating that, from today, "WhatsApp will become chargeable."
It then went on to warn users that the only way to stop the daily fee is to forward the message to "at least 10 contacts."
With WhatsApp revealing it will always remain free this message was clearly a hoax and users were warned not to forward it on to their friends.
Having given advice on how to avoid such hoaxes, WhatsApp suggests users don't interact with messages that instruct you to forward the message on, those which promise rewards or any which claim to be from WhatsApp itself.
"We always advise you to block the sender, disregard the message and delete it," the company said.
Although this latest colour changing feature might be fake there is a new WhatsApp extension that is 100 per cent real.
The Opera browsing software, has just rolled out a major update which now includes Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram icons within the browser.
This allows users to access these apps with one simple click.
After you log in to the social sites, there are two ways of using this feature: you can open it in overlay or pin it side-by-side with your current tab. Pinning a communicator allows you to combine online chatting with a full browsing experience.
You can also decide which of the messengers to enable in your sidebar by selecting them under ‘Customise start page.’
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