From: klee@unibwm.de   
      
   On 1/25/2026 7:19 AM, micky wrote:   
      
   > and told me to get his laptop and use   
   > whatsapp for the PC to continue relations with his friends (that is, the   
   > lying scammers).   
      
   But Whatsapp for the PC doesn't work standalone, there needs to be   
   a paired smartphone (or is he using an Android emulator on the PC).   
   Who has control over the Smartphone? If the parents have the smartphone,   
   they can read the chat with the scammer (I don't know if it is legal)   
   and take action if necessary.   
      
      
   > I thought I could add a line to the HOSTS file which would stop Whatsapp   
   > from working.   
      
   If he wants the PC to use Whatsapp but Whatsapp isn't working at all,   
   he will look for an other solution. And maybe the server address is   
   hard coded into the code, so modifying the HOSTS file has no effect.   
      
   If he doesn't know much about computers and Whatsapp, you could just   
   block the chat with the scammers. As I understand it, he can still   
   send messages to the scammers but not receive anything from them.   
   He can undo the blocking by a single mouse click, but only if he   
   know, that there is something like blocking chats.   
      
   If the scammers have sent pictures, you could use Google to search   
   the web for this pictures (I suppose they don't take this pictures   
   themself but just copy them from the web) to show him that the   
   scammers are lying.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)