Karen Koster revealed she recently fell victim to a new online scam, and is now worried pictures of her children could be leaked online.
The Ireland AM presenter admits she’s usually incredibly cautious when it comes to digital activity, particularly scams and fraudulent messages, however this one, was like no other.
She received a fake message from her friend, asking to send a verification code and when she responded, that’s how the hackers got into her phone.
Speaking on Ireland AM, Karen said, “I was here and in an ad break I got a text from one of our producers going, ‘I am after getting a verification code sent to your phone by mistake, will you text it back to me? It should be in your text messages’. And this was a WhatsApp from her.
“It seemed so legitimate. It was coming up to Christmas and I thought she could have been online shopping and copied and pasted my number because I was the last person she text.
“Anyway, my WhatsApp was hacked into and other contacts were hacked into. It was a means for them to get a verification code for your WhatsApp so they could get into your contacts.”
Karen, who shares three children Finn, JJ and Evie with her husband John McGuire, admits she was instantly worried pictures of the little ones would be leaked.
“I was worried about pictures of my kids, certainly you don’t want pictures of your kids all over the internet,” she said.
“I never thought I would be one to fall for these things. It is so easily done.”
Please remember to be extra vigilant online.