Sarahah exposed websites are a hoax: Why you should not give in

So you downloaded the **Sarahah** app and you are loving all the attention, both good and bad. It makes you feel important, gives you the idea that you are being noticed, but there’s always this itch that makes you want to know who is sending these messages. [caption id=“attachment_3913859” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Sarahah, an app that has been viral on social media. App Store.[/caption] With that said, there are plenty of websites that have come to the rescue of those desperate to know their secret admirers (or haters). Well not exactly, as these are some hardcore scamming websites that are simply out to make money off the poor souls who are desperate to know who that anonymous sender really is (it’s not Justin Bieber for sure!). If you have ever fallen prey to those game cheats, cheat codes or game hack websites, the first steps to knowing your anonymous sender itself will be a clear cut hint to close that tab and may be go meet a shrink about your growing self-obsession. These websites that claim to expose users of the Sarahah service, are clearly fake. Take ‘www.sarahahexposed.com’ for example. The website has a number of tickers to make you believe that there are hundreds of users currently on the website, along with another active ticker that is actually pushing out some make believe messages to give desperate visitors the impression that it’s actually scanning through Sarahah’s message archives. [caption id=“attachment_3938809” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] The scamming website looks pretty much believable.[/caption] As we all know by now, Sarahah is all about one-way traffic. You find a user, you type in your personal text message and he or she will never know it was you. Sarahah’s privacy policy clear states that it does not “sell, trade, rent or disclose any information to any third party out of this website or sites out of our network”. Which should be good enough for the teenager of 2017. So what happens when you type in your username on such scamming websites? You will first be led to a couple of options to help support the hard working servers and their philanthropic owners who work tirelessly to let you know who is your anonymous sender. Clearly, it is anything but that! You will first be greeted by a message telling you how the service is free and how you will need to click on a couple of links to keep the site’s servers running (so that others looking for answers fall prey). [caption id=“attachment_3938811” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] It’s all for the good of humanity.[/caption] Post this you will in all probability get a ‘Decrypt my messages’ button. If you thought this was the end you will finally get to know your anonymous admirer, it’s not! You will then be guided to another page that will ask users to complete a couple of tasks after which the page with your decrypted messages will “automagically” unlock. [caption id=“attachment_3938813” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Unbelievably true… not[/caption] Now comes the fun part. You will then be forced to either download games, download apps or play contests to ‘Win an iPhone 7’. So you downloaded a couple of apps, liked a couple of random Facebook pages, and even played a couple of contests. That’s when you head back to the page and discover that nothing has really changed and that it’s all a scam. Some genius actually made easy money off you by getting you to click on some links and play some contests (may be even giving up your personal data). And it’s not just the websites. Users of the Sarahah app have even reported getting messages to head to these scamming websites to know their secret admirers. How these services get contact details is a clear mystery for now. So it is wise to avoid such websites and keep your secret admirers (or haters) a secret because there’s really nobody else, apart from yourself, who will know “what you did last summer…”