Hacker Threat: Police Warn Israelis Not to Answer Unknown Calls

Jerusalem, 27 October, 2023 (TPS) -- The Israeli Police warned citizens on Friday not to answer phone or video calls from numbers they don’t recognize — particularly from abroad — following a surge of suspicious calls reported to authorities.

“The purpose of the calls may be to cause panic and harassment and may be part of attempts to take over the WhatsApp accounts,” the police said in a statement.

“We recommend not answering or returning phone calls or video calls from numbers from abroad that you do not know.”

The police urged citizens to set their phones to mute calls from unknown numbers.

Concerns about Palestinians hacking into phones have been raised since Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault on Gaza border communities, when at least 233 hostages were seized and taken to Gaza. Hamas now possesses the hostages’ cell phones and it is feared the terror group could use those phones to compromise other phones and digital communications.

Israelis scrambled to remove the captives from their social media groups, particularly WhatsApp.

But the digital threat also runs in the opposition direction. Media reports say Israel has contacted a number of spyware companies about tracking the location of the hostages’ phones.