Hi everybody!
My WhatsApp account got banned for the first time last night. I have been using the same account linked to my phone number for the past 10 years and never had an issue like this. I only use WhatsApp to chat with people I know, friends and family. When I woke up today and went to check my messages, I was met with the "account banned" notification. When I went to check the desktop app, I saw there was a ton of messages (view-once photos) sent from my account to unknown phone numbers before I was logged out forcefully. The messages were sent around 3AM, while I was asleep. I assume this is the reason why I was banned, I have sent the review request and I hope my account will be active again within 24 hours.
My question, then, is, what happened (as I have seen a lot of people have had the same issue) and what can I do to prevent such things happening in the future? I don't recall visiting any suspicious websites recently nor clicking on any spam links or submitting my phone number anywhere. I would not want my account banned anytime soon again, so any help would be greatly appreciated!