WhatsApp users have started receiving messages that the messenger will become paid. They are being sent by scammers

WhatsApp users began receiving messages that WhatsApp would become paid from May 15. To prevent this from happening, they were asked to forward this message to 10 contacts. RIA Novosti reports this.

"This way we will see that you are an active user and your logo will turn blue and will remain free. <…> Otherwise, WhatsApp will activate the account," the message says. It also says that "WhatsApp will cost 0.01 [euro] per message."

Igor Bederov, an expert at the SafeNet engineering center of the National Technology Initiative , told RIA Novosti that this was about sending fraudulent messages, so-called "letters of happiness." Bederov called for not responding to them.

RIA Novosti does not specify how many WhatsApp users received such messages.

• WhatsApp's new user agreement came into effect on May 15. It was announced back in January — and then many users thought that the messenger would share the data it collected about them with Facebook. In fact, WhatsApp had previously shared the data of most of its users with Facebook.
• WhatsApp has warned that it will gradually disable the ability to communicate for users who do not accept the new user agreement.
• On May 15, the head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Alexander Khinshtein , said that WhatsApp's new rules may contradict Russian laws, and the authorities may respond to this. Khinshtein stressed that "neither today nor tomorrow" is the issue of blocking the messenger in Russia being discussed.
• In Russia, more than 70 million people use the WhatsApp messenger at least once a month.