Inbox irritant: Spam, promotional messages flood WhatsApp user accounts

Businesses see it as a way to connect with customers; parent firm says there are easy ways to block an account

"Congratulations, your application for home loan for 4bhk aptmnt in Kyiv has approved. Please share details for money transfer.”

The absurdity of the message that Arindam Roy received on WhatsApp from an unknown number was so glaring he assumed it was a prank by one of his friends. “Who would be offering property in Kyiv in the middle of a war, and that too, to somebody living in Delhi?” thought Roy, an undergraduate student at Delhi University.    

Roy soon found out that at least three of his friends had received the same message via the messaging app. “I am surprised that