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Meta announced on Tuesday that it has closed nearly seven million WhatsApp accounts associated with scammers during the first half of this year and is enhancing protections against such fraudulent activities.
“Our team identified the accounts and disabled them before the criminal organisations that created them could use them,” WhatsApp external affairs director Clair Deevy said.
These scams, frequently operated by organised crime groups, include fraudulent cryptocurrency investments and get-rich-quick pyramid schemes, according to WhatsApp officials in a briefing.
“There is always a catch and it should be a red flag for everyone: you have to pay upfront to get promised returns or earnings,” Meta-owned WhatsApp said in a blog post.
Meta reported that WhatsApp identified and banned over 6.8 million accounts linked to scam operations, primarily in Southeast Asia.
In collaboration with OpenAI, WhatsApp, and Meta intervened to dismantle a scam originating from Cambodia that utilised ChatGPT to create messages with a link to a WhatsApp chat aimed at luring victims, according to the technology companies.
On Tuesday, Meta also started alerting WhatsApp users to exercise caution when added to unknown chat groups by unfamiliar individuals.
New “safety overviews” are being introduced, offering details about the group and advice on recognising scams, as well as the ability to exit quickly.
