WhatsApp Dance Contest Scam Lets Hackers Hijack Your Account

France's national gendarmerie has issued a warning about a growing WhatsApp scam that uses a fake dance contest to take over user accounts. The message appears to come from a friend or relative, but the sender's account has already been hijacked by a criminal.

How the trick works

The message asks you to vote for the daughter of the sender's friends, who is supposedly competing for a study grant and a chance to perform on stage. In the cases spotted online, the girl is named Sophie or Eliska. One example reads: "Hi! Did you sleep well? I have a small favor to ask: give your vote to Sophie, the daughter of my friends."

The link leads to a fake voting site that asks for your phone number to validate your participation. You then receive a verification code. If you share it, the scammers can link your WhatsApp account to their own device. Once inside, they contact your friends and family to ask for money or send phishing links.

The fraudulent links seen so far point to the domains "academybalet.lat" and "fibsdance.site", which do not match any real dance academy. Similar scams use other hooks, such as "I found photos of you as a child" or "I came across compromising photos of you", each followed by a malicious link.

How to protect yourself

Never click the link and never share a verification code with anyone. Do not approve a connection you did not request. The gendarmerie also recommends enabling two-step verification on your account.

If a message looks odd, contact the person through another channel, preferably a phone call, to check that they really sent it. If your account has already been compromised, open the "Linked devices" section in WhatsApp and log out of any device you do not recognize. Then warn your contacts as quickly as possible, since they are the scammers' next targets.