WhatsApp is ramping up its fight against scams with a fresh set of safety features aimed at helping users spot suspicious activity in both group and individual chats. Announced on Tuesday, the Meta-owned platform revealed that it has already taken action against over 6.8 million accounts linked to global scam networks.
One of the major additions is a new safety overview for group chats. This feature kicks in when you’re added to an unfamiliar group by someone not in your contacts. Before you even open the chat, WhatsApp will show a screen summarising key information—like whether the person who added you is a known contact and if any group members are in your address book. Until you explicitly choose to stay, notifications from that group will remain muted, minimising the chance of falling prey to spam or phishing attacks.
On the individual chat front, WhatsApp is addressing a growing scam tactic where fraudsters initiate conversations on other platforms before luring victims to WhatsApp for more personalised attacks. To counter this, WhatsApp is testing new alerts that pop up when you’re about to start a chat with someone not in your contacts. These alerts will provide additional context about the unknown person, nudging users to pause and verify before proceeding.
With scams becoming increasingly sophisticated, these proactive in-app features could make a significant difference in preventing fraud. WhatsApp’s latest crackdown on millions of scam-linked accounts underscores how rampant the issue has become. The platform is making it clear that while encryption and privacy remain core pillars, safety interventions like these are crucial to protecting its global user base from exploitation.
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