This can end up with people inadvertently possessing phone numbers that already act as a piece of two-factor authentication for someone else's online accounts, or, in this case, their identifier on WhatsApp, even though this re-assigning is beyond WhatsApp's own control. When a phone number has not been used in some time, a carrier may re-assign or recycle it.). The root of the problem appears to be phone number reuse. I didn't have access to any historical messages from before I logged into the account, but I did receive messages in real-time after that. At least some of these people likely did not know the account of their friend or perhaps relative had been accidentally taken over by someone else. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, OTR chat on or email more than a week, when I turned the phone back on it vibrated with a stream of new WhatsApp messages. This, I quickly realized, wasn't really my WhatsApp account, but someone else's.ĭo you work at WhatsApp, or did you used to? We'd love to hear from you.

I checked my 'status' in the app, and my profile picture was of a blonde woman. I was immediately in multiple group chats with other people and numbers I did not know. When I logged into WhatsApp for the first time, something was wrong. I then downloaded WhatsApp and registered with my new number. Earlier this month, I bought a pay-as-go SIM card because I needed a fresh number for a particular article I was working on.

Your whatsapp number account can be