The Independence Day is here and so are the forwards and among those forwards a shocking ‘warning’ has gone viral on WhatsApp that claims you may receive a message which will ask you to unlock a card to wish you ‘Happy Independence Day’ by keeping your thumb where it asks and it will steal your thumbprint which will give access to your biometric data.
English –
“To all my friends, be careful of some msgs in WhatsApp that asks you to put your thumb in a screen to unlock a msg like happy Independence day or happy new year… Beware of these msgs and don’t put your thumb anywhere. Scanning your thumb impression will give the app owners access to your biometric data, this is very serious as your Aadhar biometric is linked to PAN, banks etc.. be very careful and spread the message !! cyber crime on the rise now. #TRAI”
Hindi –
कृपया एकदम सतर्क रहें … 🙏🏼
मेरे सभी दोस्तों के लिए, व्हाट्सएप में कुछ संदेशों से सावधान रहें जो आपको स्वतंत्रता दिवस या नया साल मुबारक हो जैसे संदेश को अनलॉक करने के लिए स्क्रीन में अपना अंगूठा लगाने के लिए कहता है … इन संदेशों से सावधान रहें और कहीं भी अपना अंगूठा न रखें।
आपके अंगूठे की छाप स्कैन करने से ऐप मालिकों को आपके बॉयोमीट्रिक डेटा तक पहुंच मिल जाएगी, यह बहुत गंभीर है क्योंकि आपके आधार बॉयोमीट्रिक पैन, बैंक इत्यादि से जुड़ा हुआ है .. बहुत सावधान रहें और संदेश फैलाएं !! अब वृद्धि पर साइबर अपराध।🙏🏼👌🏽
ALSO READ: Don’t believe the FAKE claims; this is not the Delhi flyover which caved in
To all my friends, be careful of some msgs in WhatsApp that asks you to put your thumb in a screen to unlock a msg like happy Independence day or happy new year… Beware of these msgs and don’t put your thumb anywhere…
— KANAK LATA (@Kanaklata_Kayna) August 11, 2018
Please be careful of some msgs in WhatsApp that asks you to put your thumb in a screen to unlock a msg.
Don’t put your thumb anywhere. This is very serious as your Aadhar biometric is linked to PAN, banks etc. be very careful and spread the message.
Cyber crime on the rise now
— Modi For 2019 (@AnujGaur17) August 10, 2018
This is how the wish looks like:
The post says ‘Scan your finger to view surprising wish.’
On taping with any finger, any angle it shows a bar crossing from top to bottom as if it is scanning your fingerprint and leads you to another page wishing you Happy Independence Day with a patriotic song playing in the background.
FACT CHECK
Well, there are two parts of the claim and both are unreal as the first part is the usual WhatsApp scam, it needs website traffic to earn money from the advertisements shown on the page.
The thumbprint image is just a gif image i.e animated image on the website. It is a transparent gif so white background, click here to see the image hosted on that site with the black background.
Meanwhile, as a matter of fact, screens of the most smartphones cannot scan the fingerprint at all.
While, in few new mobile models fingerprint scanner is on the display but it’s not because of software or OS, it’s an additional hardware.
