Users of chat app WhatsApp are being warned over a new scam.

Urgent WhatsApp scam warning. Many users have been tricked into handing over a 6-digit verification code which hackers then use to access their account and contacts. The hackers, posing as friends, chat normally to you over the app. You are none the wiser, however you will then receive a text or email with the 6-digit code.

Your “friend” will then send you a message saying they sent a code to you by mistake and ask you to send it back to them. Victims who have already been scammed say the message says something like “Hello, sorry, I sent you a 6-digit code by mistake, can you pass it to me please? It’s urgent?”

The verification code will only ever be sent if you are accessing or changing an account. If sent the code allows the hacker to access your account. Users took to social media to report the scam with one saying “Three members of my family have lost access to their WhatsApp this morning.

Hackers send a text message from WA with a verification code, then a WhatsApp text from someone you know saying they desperately need the code.

Do not send the code or click the link.” WhatsApp have urged people to never give out a verification code they receive to another person under any circumstances. There is also an option to set up a “double verification” with which you have to also enter a PIN number for access.