🩰 WhatsApp scam: the fake dance contest that steals your account
"Hi, can you vote for my niece in the dance contest? It only takes 30 seconds!" The message comes from a friend, a neighbour, a colleague. You click, you vote… and a few minutes later, someone else is reading your WhatsApp conversations and writing to your loved ones pretending to be you.
🚨 ONGOING ALERT — OCTOBER 2026
This scam is circulating widely in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Spain. Radio France reported it on 22 October, and the Spanish cybersecurity agency (INCIBE) issued an alert on 21 October. It affects everyone, whatever their age.
🎭 The scenario, step by step
- 1️⃣ A message from a contact you know. Their account has already been hacked: it's the scammer writing, using their name and photo.
- 2️⃣ A touching story. A little girl, a dance contest, a scholarship or a course to be won. "Just one vote, thanks!!"
- 3️⃣ A link to a fake voting page. Photos of children in tutus, "Vote" buttons, a vote counter… it all looks real.
- 4️⃣ The "anti-fraud check". The page asks for your number, then has you type a code into WhatsApp, or scan a QR code, "to validate the vote".
🔓 The trap: this code doesn't vote, it opens your account
WhatsApp lets you use your account on a computer or tablet: this is the "Linked devices" feature. To link a new device, you need a code or a QR code… that only the owner of the phone can validate.
Scammers start this linking process from their own computer, using your number. The fake page shows you their code. By typing it into WhatsApp, you are not voting for anyone: you are authorising their computer to get into your account.
💡 The sneakiest part: your WhatsApp keeps working normally. Nothing warns you. Some pages even ask you not to "close the session until the end of the contest" so that you don't cut off their access.
😱 What the hacker does next
- 👀 They read everything: your conversations, your photos, your documents, your groups.
- 📨 They send the same trap to all your contacts, in your name. This is how the scam spreads so fast.
- 💸 They ask your loved ones for money: "my phone is broken", "I have an emergency at the dentist's", "can you lend me €900?", by bank transfer, PayPal or Transcash vouchers.
- 🔒 They can lock you out and activate a security code themselves to keep the account.
🚦 The warning signs to look out for
- 🗳️ A vote, a contest, a poll… that asks for your phone number.
- 🔢 You are asked to type a code into WhatsApp or scan a QR code from a web page.
- 🌐 A strange address: .top, .xyz, .click, or the name of an unknown "academy".
- ⏱️ Urgency and emotion: "quick", "only 2 hours left", "she's counting on you".
The golden rule: a WhatsApp code is never given out, never typed in for someone else, and never used to vote.
🛡️ The two settings to change now (2 minutes)
- 💻 Check your linked devices. Android: ⋮ menu › Linked devices. iPhone: Settings › Linked devices. See a device you don't recognise? Tap it, then Log out.
- 🔐 Turn on two-step verification. Settings › Account › Two-step verification: choose a 6-digit code and add your email address. No one will be able to register your account elsewhere without this code.
Do the same on the phones of your parents, your children and your grandparents: it's the best security gift you can give them.
🆘 Already typed in the code? Don't panic, act quickly
- 1️⃣ Log out all unknown devices (Linked devices › Log out).
- 2️⃣ Turn on two-step verification with your email address.
- 3️⃣ Warn your loved ones by another means (text message, phone call, social media): "do not reply to WhatsApp messages coming from me, my account has been hacked".
- 4️⃣ Has WhatsApp logged you out? Reinstall it and log back in with your number: you will receive a code by text message. If an unknown PIN locks you out, use "forgot PIN" (a link is sent by email) or wait 7 days, then write to support: Settings › Help › Contact us.
- 5️⃣ Has money been sent? Call your bank straight away, then file a police complaint.
- 6️⃣ Report the scam on 17Cyber (the official help service for victims) and on internet-signalement.gouv.fr.
💬 Unsure about a message? Ask Elia
Have you received a strange message, a link, a request for a code? Show it to Elia, our advisor, at the bottom right of this page: send her a screenshot and she will tell you whether it's a scam and what to do. It's free.
👉 Share this article with your family and your groups: one relative warned means one less account for the scammers.
Sources: Radio France (ICI, 22 Oct. 2026), INCIBE (21 Oct. 2026), Malwarebytes, Kaspersky, Allo Informatique 06. The images in this article are illustrations: the message, the first names and the address are invented.