Jaipur, May 23 (IANS) The Rajasthan Police Cyber Crime Branch is continuously running awareness campaigns to curb cybercrime in the state and protect citizens from digital fraud, officials said.

In this regard, the Cyber Branch has issued an important advisory on securing WhatsApp, which has become an essential communication platform in today’s digital age.

Additional Director General of Police (Cyber Crime) V.K. Singh said on Friday that even minor negligence or lack of awareness could result in hackers gaining access to personal chats, private photos and videos, banking details, and other sensitive information.

Given the growing threat posed by cybercriminals, citizens have been advised to immediately enable certain key privacy and security settings on their WhatsApp accounts.

Cyber experts have advised users to immediately enable WhatsApp’s Two-Step Verification feature for enhanced account security.

Users can activate it by going to Settings > Account > Two-Step Verification and setting a secret PIN.

Once enabled, even if fraudsters clone a SIM card, they will not be able to access the WhatsApp account without the PIN.

To safeguard personal information, users should limit access to their profile photo, last seen, status, and group settings to “My Contacts” under Privacy Settings. This helps prevent misuse of personal photos and protects users from being added to fraudulent groups by unknown persons.

Fraudsters often circulate malware-infected APK or PDF files through WhatsApp.

If media auto-download is enabled, such files may automatically save to the phone and operate in the background, potentially stealing banking and personal data.

Users are advised to go to Storage and Data settings and completely disable auto-download.

The advisory also recommends enabling the Silence Unknown Callers feature under Privacy Settings to avoid spam and international scam calls.

To further enhance privacy, users should activate the Protect IP Address in Calls option under Advanced Privacy settings, which routes calls through WhatsApp servers and conceals the user’s real location.

The Cyber Branch has also urged users to periodically check the Linked Devices section on WhatsApp to ensure their account is not being accessed on any unknown computer or device.

If any suspicious device is detected, users should log out immediately.

The Cyber Crime Branch appealed to citizens to report any cyber fraud without delay at the nearest police station or cyber police station.

Complaints can also be lodged through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal at cybercrime.gov.in, by calling the cyber helpline number ‘1930’.

–IANS

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