Urgent WhatsApp warning issued to all users

Millions of people use WhatsApp everyday, whether that be for work purposes or to catch up with friends and family. The messaging service lets users send messages, record voice messages and voice videos, share images and even share locations.

As the amount of people using WhatsApp increases, the risk of being scammed becomes greater with scammers trying to exploit people using a range of crafty techniques. UK Cyber help service Action Fraud have issued a warning on their social media pages, alerting people to one particular scam which consistently catches people out.

In their warning, they said: "If a family member or friend makes an unusual request on WhatsApp, always call the person outside of WhatsApp to confirm their identity.

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"Report spam messages or block a sender within WhatsApp. Press and hold on the message bubble, select ‘Report’ and then follow the instructions. If you lost money as a result of the scam message, please report it to Action Fraud."

The warning has urged people to beware of fraudsters posing as friends or family, and claiming to need urgent financial help. On yesterday's episode of BBC Morning Live, scam expert Nick Stapleton offered advice for how to spot a scam and stay safe.

Figures revealed 25,000 people fall victim to a scam everyday. He said fraudsters "watch their calendar" and will often "tailor their scam" to take advantage of people's main worries and concerns depending on the time of year.

Scammers may disguise themselves during the winter months and throughout bad weather, with a "major increase" in scam phone calls impersonating boiler, energy or insurance companies. He advised viewers that if they are ever unsure about a particular phone call claiming to be a company, they should hang up the phone and find a number directly related to the company and call them back to check if it is authentic.

He advised, being careful sharing extensive financial information and make sure you put the phone down and look-up the phone number of the legitimate company if you think it's a scam.