WhatsApp is rolling out a new scam prevention tool, it announced Tuesday. The feature, called Safety Report, works when someone who isn’t in your contacts adds you to a WhatsApp group. The messaging app, owned by MetA, will provide key information about the group, as well as tips on how to stay safe from phishing and scams. As part of its ongoing efforts to protect its users from scams, it has detected and banned more than 6.8 million accounts linked to scam centers.
Security overview for WhatsApp
In the newsroom, Meta announced a new WhatsApp security report tool. It appears when an unknown person adds you to a WhatsApp group that you don’t recognize. The tool will show you information about the person who added you to the group, the total number of members, the group creator, and the date it was created.
From here, you can review the information and decide whether you want to stay or leave the group. If you think you recognize the group from the security report information, you can view the chat for more details. However, if you want to leave, then WhatsApp will allow you to leave the group without taking any action from the chat messages, as indicated in the meta.
In both cases, group notifications will be silenced until you check the box that says you want to remain in the WhatsApp group.
For individual chats, the Meta-owned instant messaging platform is currently testing a new way to alert users when they start a new chat with someone who isn’t in their contact list. This will show additional context about the user to help them make an informed decision.
This is part of WhatsApp’s efforts to protect its user base from scams. The company said it has banned over 6.8 lakh accounts that were linked to scam centers. In addition, WhatsApp worked with its parent company Meta and Sam Altman’s Openai to disrupt the scam efforts and connect them to a scam center in Cambodia.
The defendant used ChatGpt to run a variety of scams, ranging from payments for fake likes and luring people into cryptocurrency investments to a rent-for-hire pyramid scheme.
