Ronald Mayinja knew something was wrong when his phone would not stop ringing.
Friends and family members kept asking why he was requesting money from them, but the singer says he had no idea what they were talking about.
While speaking to Mark Mukunja on Music Taxi, Mayinja recalled that those calls were the first sign that someone else had taken control of his WhatsApp account.
My friends and family members started calling me, asking why I was requesting money from them and what I needed it for. That is when I realised I was no longer in control of my phone.
Only then did he begin retracing his steps.
Earlier that day, Mayinja had received what appeared to be an ordinary phone call. The caller claimed he had been invited to an online meeting before asking him to open a link he had sent.
Mayinja says he did not think twice.
I clicked on the link, and within a minute or so, I was logged out of my WhatsApp.
By the time he realised what had happened, the hacker was already using his account to contact the people closest to him.
The scam, however, soon began to unravel.
Mayinja explained that many of his friends became suspicious because the messages sounded nothing like the way he normally communicates.
The advantage I had was that the thief kept texting everyone in a lot of English. My friends found that suspicious because that is not how I normally communicate, so they started calling me to confirm.
Locked out of his account and unable to warn people himself, Mayinja turned to fellow musician Mesach Semakula for help.
Semakula recorded a video alert urging friends and fans to ignore any messages coming from the compromised account, helping spread the warning before more people fell victim.
I was with Mesach Semakula, and I asked him to record a video telling our friends to inform others that I had been hacked.
Ronald Mayinja baamu’hackinze ku whatsApp, omufere n’atandika okusaba abantu be sente.#SanyukaMusicTaxi #SanyukaUpdates pic.twitter.com/6ICajYU4nC
— Sanyuka TV (@sanyukatv) July 14, 2026