Over 6.8 million accounts have been scrubbed off of WhatsApp as part of a crackdown on ‘criminal scam centres’, most of them in South East Asia.
Meta is working to target too-good-to-be-true offers and unsolicited texts unleashed to steal people’s personal information or money.
Scrapping scam accounts is just one of the measures the parent company announced earlier this week.
A new tool is also being rolled out on WhatsApp to help customers spot any signs of fraud – but experts argue that much more is needed to protect people.
What are some of the WhatsApp scams to know and avoid?
The truth is that fraudsters are working around the clock to perfect their techniques and as a result, scams are becoming more sophisticated by the minute.
Fake recruiters reaching out with a job offer or opportunity is one of the most popular scams to look out for.
Often getting in touch completely unsolicited, they try to bait jobseekers with false promises of high pay and competitive benefits.
As an excuse to extort money, they may request payment for training, and if it is information they are after, they will try and persuade people to share bank accounts and other details.
Another successful fraud is the ‘fake giveaway’. Texts with links for free products or vouchers regularly circulate WhatsApp.
They typically lead to a malicious website and ask people to complete a survey before attempting to gain your personal and financial information to ‘post your prize’.
What are the new anti-scam measures?
In addition to banning the scam accounts, WhatsApp is also rolling out a single new feature to help protect users.
Group messaging: WhatsApp is launching a new safety overview that will show when someone who is not in the user’s contacts adds them to a new group you may not recognize.
It will include key information about the group and tips to stay safe. From there, people can exit the group without ever having to look at the chat.
Individual messaging: While this is not a feature yet, Meta said it is testing new approaches to alerting people to pause before engaging with a user not in the contacts.
UK consumer rights organisation Which? welcomed the announcement, but said: ‘Meta must do much more to stop these criminals across all its platforms.’
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