As one of the world's leading instant messaging platforms, it's no surprise that WhatsApp is a frequent target of hackers. Therefore, you will want to understand how your WhatsApp account can be compromised and take serious steps to protect your WhatsApp account, messages, personal data.
1. Installing malware

Sometimes, hackers don't need to directly hack your WhatsApp account. Sometimes, they just install a nasty piece of malware on your device and let it do all the heavy lifting.
Someone can access your WhatsApp messages using malware in a number of ways. Malware with keyloggers can run silently in the background and record what you are typing. This includes anything you're sending to friends but can also contain data like entered usernames and passwords.
Some malware will instead collect your messages directly. This includes malware that goes through your WhatsApp chats and sends it back to hackers, but it can also include viruses that hijack your phone's screen recording feature and use it to record video what you are watching. If you happen to chat with someone while malware is recording your phone, cybercriminals can see what you're discussing.
2. Call forwarding fraud
While malware will mainly spy on your messages, there are still ways in which hackers can directly access your WhatsApp account. These usually involve tricking you into providing hackers with the means to break your account's two-factor authentication (2FA).
By far the easiest way for hackers to crack an account's 2FA protection is to have WhatsApp send them the login code instead of you. One of WhatsApp's 2FA methods gives you a phone login code, so hackers can use call forwarding to redirect that call to them.

To achieve this, the scammer will convince you to enter a Man Machine Interface (MMI) code to redirect your calls to them. They can use many tricks, but the most common method is to convince you that you need to call someone and then convert the MMI code into their phone number.
After setting up call forwarding, cybercriminals can log into your account and select voice calls to obtain 2FA codes. WhatsApp tries to call you, but the call is forwarded to the scammer, who accesses your login code.
3. Social Engineering to get login code
Cybercriminals can also get 2FA login codes by asking you for them. Of course, they usually say that it's something else than the only thing that's preventing them from accessing your account.
This particular attack targets SMS-based 2FA codes, where WhatsApp sends you a 6-digit code that you must enter into the app to log in. In this attack, the scammer will contact you and convince you that those 6 digits are actually something else and ask you for them.
One campaign reported by Nottinghamshire Police in the UK saw scammers tell their victims that the six-digit code was actually a passcode for an important video call. People would give the code, thinking it would let them into a special group, not knowing that the person on the other end was about to steal their account.
4. Fake QR codes on WhatsApp web

When you want to use WhatsApp web, you have to scan the QR code with your phone. Unfortunately, cybercriminals have found a way to interfere with this process and create fake WhatsApp web pages that display malicious QR codes. After scanning, the scammer will have access to your account.
The Straits Times reported that the scam started by searching the web for WhatsApp Web. Usually, the official WhatsApp website is the top result, but scammers are good at putting fake websites at the top of search engine results. And because people often trust the first result, they click without realizing that they've fallen into a trap.
The fake website looks exactly like WhatsApp web, except it has a malicious QR code that can steal people's accounts. Some people didn't even realize they had provided personal information after scanning the code, as there was no obvious clue as to what had happened other than not being able to log in to WhatsApp web.
To learn more about whether WhatsApp is safe, see our guide Quantrimang.com about WhatsApp security threats that users need to know.