WhatsApp has asked a US court to hold a blacklisted spyware firm in contempt, after claiming it has violated a permanent injunction banning it from targeting users. The messaging giant said on June 8 that it “successfully disrupted” social engineering attempts linked to Israeli firm NSO Group after investigating user complaints. “They tried to trick people into clicking on malicious links to drive them to external websites outside of WhatsApp, similar to previously reported one-click phishing campaigns linked to NSO,” it said. “We also caught them creating test accounts and groups on WhatsApp, which we took down.” Last year, the commercial spyware firm was ordered to pay damages of over $167m after hacking into about 1400 WhatsApp users' devices. That ruling was the culmination of a…