New text bomb causes WhatsApp to crash, phone to hang

For the past few years, WhatsApp and other messenger apps have been targeted by bad actors to crash them and cause inconvenience to the customers.

Now, another attempt is being made on the messenger app network. Whatsapp community blog WABetaInfo is claiming that the text bomb dubbed as 'Scarry Messages' originated and more prevalent in Brazil. This started in mid-August but now, it has grown to wider global regions.

The text bomb contains a series of randomly placed special characters and makes no sense in terms of meaning or creative art like the most WhatsApp forwards we receive. Even WhatsApp on phones too has failed to comprehend the meaning and is causing the messenger app to crash on loop. Even when WhatsApp is closed and opened again, it causes the phone to hang and renders it inoperable.

As of now, there is no temporary solution and also WhatsApp is yet to respond to the mayhem on its messenger app service.

For now, WhatsApp users are advised not to open chat sessions nor read messages from unknown numbers or contacts.

Also, go to Settings >> Privacy >> Group >> change 'Who can add me to groups' from 'Everyone to' to 'My Contacts'. By doing this, miscreants will not be able to add any user to random groups and drop the text bomb into group chat session.

New Update | WhatsApp releases security patch to fix text bomb issue

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