Hacked WhatsApp: how to recover your account (India)
Last updated: 2026-07-11
To recover a hacked WhatsApp, reinstall WhatsApp and re-verify your own phone number using the one-time code sent by SMS or call. This single step logs out whoever is using your account — on WhatsApp, a phone number can be active on only one phone at a time, so verifying it on your phone takes it back from theirs.
Right after you are back in, set up two-step verification — a PIN that WhatsApp asks for when your number is registered on a phone again — so the attacker cannot simply re-register and return. Then tell your contacts you were hacked, because the attacker may be messaging them from your account. The ordered checklist is below.
Get your account back — in order
Do these in sequence. Steps 1–2 are the ones that actually evict the attacker; steps 3–5 keep them out and limit the damage.
- Reinstall WhatsApp and re-verify your number. Open WhatsApp, enter your own phone number, and confirm the one-time code that arrives by SMS or phone call. The moment your number is verified on your phone, it is signed out of the attacker's phone.
- Turn on two-step verification (set a PIN). In WhatsApp's settings, switch on two-step verification and choose a PIN only you know. This blocks anyone from re-registering your number without it.
- Warn your contacts that you were hacked. An attacker often messages your contacts pretending to be you — "I'm in trouble, please send money" or "share the OTP I just sent you". Tell your contacts (from your recovered account or another channel) that you were hacked and to ignore any such request until they have spoken to you directly.
- Check your account details and linked devices. Review your profile, and remove any linked or companion devices you do not recognise so no extra copy of your chats stays connected.
- Report the hacked account. File a complaint at cybercrime.gov.in; if any money was sent because of the hack, also call 1930, the national cyber-crime helpline, and note the reference and acknowledgement numbers.
If you need to reach WhatsApp itself, use the app's own Help & Support option inside Settings, or its official account-recovery flow — not a "support number" or link someone sent you. Recovery is possible but not guaranteed; acting quickly gives the best chance.
If you can't get the SMS or call code
If the verification code never arrives — your calls and SMS have stopped, or your phone suddenly shows "no service" — your SIM itself may have been swapped, and getting the code back to you is the first problem to solve. See SIM swap fraud: signs and what to do for the time-critical steps to reclaim your number; once your number is back on your SIM, the WhatsApp re-verification above will work.
How to keep it from happening again
Keep two-step verification switched on, and never read out a WhatsApp registration code to anyone — a code that "came to you by mistake" is how an attacker takes an account. WhatsApp will not ask you for that code by call or message.
Beware a second scam: never pay a "recovery agent", "ethical hacker", or "hacker-for-hire" who promises to get your account back for a fee — that is a fresh fraud. The only real routes are WhatsApp's own re-verification and Help & Support flow, and, to report, cybercrime.gov.in and 1930. Do anything involving passwords or PINs from a different, trusted device if you think the attacker still had access to your phone.
To report a hacked account or any money lost, see how to report online fraud: cybercrime.gov.in and 1930.
If you are still locked out
Keep every complaint acknowledgement number. If re-verification does not restore your account, keep trying WhatsApp's official Help & Support flow, and use the National Consumer Helpline (1915) for guidance. All official channels are linked below so you can act directly.
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