WhatsApp, a popular messaging app, said it has added new tools and taken action to combat messaging scams.
The company announced Tuesday it has added a new tool that will show users when someone who is not in their contact list adds them to a news group chat that they may not recognize.
A safety overview window will pop up with information about the group and tips for avoiding scams, allowing you to exit the chat without ever having to open it.
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WhatsApp also said it is exploring options for cautioning users when they start a new chat with someone who is not in their contacts.
The company said some of the most prolific sources of scams come from criminal centers that are "often fueled by forced labor and operated by organized crime primarily in Southeast Asia."
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WhatsApp said these scam centers tend to run multiple campaigns at once, ranging from cryptocurrency to pyramid schemes.
"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," the company said.
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In the first half of this year, WhatsApp said it identified and banned nearly 7 million accounts that were linked to scam centers.
The company said it has been partnering with other technology leaders, like OpenAI, to combat scams that connect their products.
"Recently, WhatsApp, Meta and our peers at OpenAI disrupted scams efforts which we were able to link to a criminal scam center in Cambodia. These attempts ranged from offering payments for fake likes to enlisting others into a rent-a-scooter pyramid scheme, or luring people to invest in cryptocurrency," WhatsApp stated. "As OpenAI reported, the scammers used ChatGPT to generate the initial text message containing a link to a WhatsApp chat, and then quickly directed the target to Telegram where they were assigned a task of liking videos on TikTok. The scammers attempted to build trust in their scheme by sharing how much the target has already ‘earned’ in theory, before asking them to deposit money into a crypto account as the next task."
