Martinelli Virus Won’t Affect Your Phone Because It Doesn’t Exist

The Martinelli virus doesn’t exist, but ‘WhatsApp Gold’ is malicious. Together, they are hoax.

How long is the shelf life of a piece of fake news? Quite long it seems, as they keep resurfacing in social media circles, often after they have been debunked.

The Quint recently came across one such fake report that had been called out back in April this year, but is still doing rounds – probably because it has got to do with your WhatsApp account.

CLAIM

The message is a typical warning that reads, “Today the radio was talking about WhatsApp Gold and it is true. There is a video that will be released tomorrow on WhatsApp and is called Martinelli. Do not open it. Enter your phone and nothing you do will fix it. Spread the message if you know someone. If you receive a message to update Whatsapp Gold * Do not open it! They just announced that the virus is serious.
Send it to everyone.”

The Quint received the message through WhatsApp:

TRUE OR FALSE?

Well, both. Investigations by a number of platforms revealed that one part of the message is true and the other is a hoax.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

The first thing that struck us was that apart from WhatsApp, the message has been relayed by multiple users on other platforms too.

WhatsApp Users WARNING !! I have been advised to pass this on to those who,like me, use WA: Ignore a video called ‘martinelli’ which might arrive via WA as it will irrevocably hack your phone.
Also - equally ignore any request to update to ‘WhatsAppGold’ - this is a severe VIRUS

— Anne Kingston (@annykingston7) November 6, 2018

Might just be a rumour, but heads up anyway;
"Apparently there is a text that will be sent tomorrow from WhatsApp to update to “gold”, it’s called martinelli. It is a https://t.co/wPltM5PBud not open it, it hacks into your phone and you cannot get it out"

— Julia Hughes (@tinksaid) September 12, 2018

The claims made in the message were first busted by The Independent in April this year and was subsequently taken up by a number of platforms.

One such fact-checking article by Snopes verifies that while the message about Martinelli video is false, it so turns out that the message about WhatsApp Gold is true.

Messages about WhatsApp Gold offer a range of extra features for the platform. But when people try to claim it by clicking on links, they are actually directed to malicious websites, which then attempt to steal from users or take over their phones, reports The Independent.

(With inputs from Snopes and The Independent)

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