WhatsApp Gold and Martinelli hoax resurfaces! Do not believe it!

A message is being shared by social media users stating that a video named Martinelli has been released on updating WhatsApp to WhatsApp Gold. This video, if opened, will install a virus on your phone which you cannot delete by doing anything. This malware will hack your smartphone. This message is creating a lot of panic among WhatsApp users.

The message states ‘Today the radio was talking about WhatsApp Gold. There is a video that will be launched tomorrow in WhatsApp and is called Martinelli. Do not open it. Goes into your phone and nothing you do will fix it. Spread the word. If you receive a message to update WhatsApp Gold * Do not open it! They just announced that the virus is serious. PLEASE DON’T OPEN IT AND PLEASE LET YOUR FRIENDS KNOW’

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Fact Check-

What is WhatsApp Gold?

Our investigation began by searching about WhatsApp Gold on Google and found a report published by the Economic Times, according to which there are several fake updates and duplicate apps available on Google Play. You may get a message to download WhatsApp Gold or WhatsApp Plus, which downloads a lot of malwares to your smartphone, thus putting your personal data at risk. Users are asked to click on a link to download the update but instead, it takes them to a website which is filled with malware, thus infecting the smartphone with a bad virus.

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There is no information about WhatsApp Gold in the FAQs section on the official WhatsApp website. However, there is information about WhatsApp Plus in the WhatsApp FAQs section, according to which WhatsApp Plus is an application that was not developed by WhatsApp and is not authorized by WhatsApp. The developers of WhatsApp Plus have no affiliation with WhatsApp, and they do not endorse WhatsApp Plus.

WhatsApp rolls out new features all the time. But the company is very vocal about what updates it is rolling out and when. Any WhatsApp update is done by updating the installed app from the Play Store.

There are no updates to WhatsApp that can be done by clicking on a link embedded in the message. Apart from this, instructions to update WhatsApp are given in the FAQs section.

Scammers on the Internet have put up a link that entices people to install WhatsApp Gold, but in reality, tricks them into downloading malware.

What is Martinelli?

In 2017, a message began to go viral about a video link that claimed it would download a virus onto your phone if opened. The video was called “Martinelli,” but there was no such video. The warning is a hoax, which appears to have originated in a Spanish-language version sometime in 2017. The official Twitter account of Spain’s National Police dismissed the “Martinelli” video as a hoax.

Cybersecurity firm Sophos has described the message as “half nonsense” and called the video a “fictitious threat”. “Given that there is no apparent ‘Martinelli’ video, WhatsApp users are safe,” Sophos said in the post.

Conclusion:

After fact-checking, we found the above post to be false. The message appears to be a bizarre amalgamation of WhatsApp Gold and a video called “Martinelli”. While WhatsApp Gold is a real threat that can download viruses onto the phone, Martinelli is a fictitious threat as no such video actually exists. The rumour has been circulating since 2016.