Over 1.4million Irish people use WhatsApp every day as the nation's most popular texting service.
However, users are now being warned to be on the look out for fake "support accounts" posing as official WhatsApp accounts.
The scammers are using profile pictures that make the message appear to be coming from a verified account.
The scam warning was first noted on WhatsApp blog, WABetaInfo, when a user received a suspicious message on WhatsApp.
The text received came from a WhatsApp number with a profile photo that had a verified badge.
READ MORE:
But on closer inspection there was a clear error making it obvious it was a scam message.
On a genuine WhatsApp Support account, it will have a green tick next to the contact name in the conversation screen showing it is a verified account.
This is not available to scammers but they will try and "fool" people by placing the green tick in their profile picture.
The WABetaInfo blog said: "When you are chatting with a verified contact, there is a verified badge placed next to the contact name in the conversation screen and their chat info.
"If you see the verified badge located in a different place, for example, on the profile photo, it means the contact pretends to be verified, but it is trying to fool you.
"These contacts want to get some private information from you, for example, your credit card details to avoid terminating your WhatsApp account. In some cases, they also ask for your 6-digit code to log into your WhatsApp account!"
People have been warned not to interact if a fake account messages you, and instead to delete the text immediately.
Users were also warned not to give away any personal details to the fraudulent account
They should also block and report the number to prevent the scammer from contacting any other people on WhatsApp.
