The same dozen scripts circulate on WhatsApp and Telegram, refreshed every few months with a new brand name. Learn the line that gives each one away.
Money-making scripts
Task job: ‘Earn ₹200 per YouTube like’ → small payouts, then a ‘prepaid task’ deposit you never get back.
Trading group: screenshots of profits, a ‘mentor’, an app from a link, profits you cannot withdraw without a ‘tax’.
Crypto arbitrage / mining: guaranteed daily returns; withdrawals frozen.
Franchise / dealership: a ‘security deposit’ for a famous brand's dealership offered over chat.
Impersonation scripts
‘Hi mum / hi dad, new number’: a child who lost their phone needs money urgently.
Fake boss: the MD messages an accountant to make an urgent payment or buy gift cards.
Bank / courier / electricity: your account, parcel or power is about to be blocked; a link fixes it.
Wedding-invitation APK: a ‘wedding card’ file that installs a SMS-stealing app.
Account-takeover scripts
‘I sent you a code by mistake, please forward it’: that code registers your WhatsApp on their phone.
Group-invite hijack: a friend's compromised account adds you to a ‘prize’ group.
Screen-share ‘support’: a helper asks you to install AnyDesk to ‘fix’ an app.
Missed-call / call-forwarding: dial *401* to ‘activate an offer’ — it forwards your calls.
The common tells
Money before money (a fee, deposit or tax); a link or file instead of the official app; secrecy; urgency; a personal number where an institution should be; and any request for a code, PIN or OTP.
Checklist
- ☐Never forward a code or OTP — for anyone, for any reason
- ☐Two-step verification PIN set on WhatsApp
- ☐Group privacy set to ‘My contacts’
- ☐Unknown-number calls silenced in settings
- ☐No APK / file from a chat is ever opened
- ☐Payments to new payees confirmed by a voice call to a known number
Where to report
- • 1930 — national cyber-crime helpline (money lost: call within the first hour)
- • cybercrime.gov.in — National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal
- • chakshu.sancharsaathi.gov.in — report fraud numbers and SMS
- • sachet.rbi.org.in — RBI complaints about unregistered lenders / deposit schemes