[maratumba]

I don't know if it's related but this morning I realized that I'd been logged out of my Whatsapp account. When I tried to log back in, I couldn't get Whatsapp to confirm my phone number. I didn't get the SMS they sent for the recovery code. Thankfully "call me" option worked for receiving the recovery code. But then I was asked a 2fa PIN which I (unfortunately) never had set up. "Forgot my PIN" also didn't send an email to my account (which I'm pretty sure I also hadn't set up anyway).

Currently I'm waiting to hear from Whatsapp support and/or the 7 day waiting time to be over to reset my account. It is bizarre that I am not able to recover my account when I still own my phone number (I can still receive SMS on it).

I would consider myself very cautious about clicking suspicious links, of course one can never be 100% sure. This was very disconcerting.

As a reminder for all Whatsapp users, please set up your 2FA PINs and recovery emails.

[hofrogs]

It would be insane if you could recover an account only having access to a phone number, since phone numbers can be redistributed to other people if you stop paying for your phone plan and then someone who gets your number will also inherit all your contacts and chats

[jowea]

Your contacts could still end up messaging the new owner of the number inadvertently if you don't warn them before losing the number or out of band through. It seems WhatsApp doesn't has no warning if such a owner change happened. I believe the new owner would inherit your group memberships too, but not the group chat history.