WhatsApp is launching a new safety overview that we’ll show you when someone who is not in your contacts adds you to a new WhatsApp group you may not recognize. It will include key information about the group and tips to stay safe. From there, you can exit the group without ever having to look at the chat. And if you think you might recognize the group after seeing the safety overview, you can choose to see the chat for more context. Regardless, notifications from the group will be silenced until you mark that you want to stay.

Additionally, scammers may attempt to first initiate contact with you elsewhere on the internet and then ask you to message them on private messengers like WhatsApp. To protect against this type of tactic, we continue to test new approaches to alerting our users to pause before engaging. For example, we’re exploring ways to caution you when you start a chat with someone not in your contacts by showing you additional context about who you’re messaging so you can make an informed decision.

Enforcement against scam centers

We also work to take down attempts by criminal scam centers, often fueled by forced labor and operated by organized crime primarily in South East Asia. In the first six months of this year, as part of our ongoing proactive work to protect people from scams, WhatsApp and Meta’s security teams detected and banned over 6.8 million accounts linked to scam centers. Based on our investigative insights into the latest enforcement efforts, we proactively detected and took down accounts before scam centers were able to operationalize them.

Working with Others to Protect People

As an example, 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. 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.

Tips to avoid scams in private messagingWe encourage people to stop and think before responding to a suspicious message, especially if it’s from a number they don’t know and promising fast money.

On WhatsApp, here are some other ways to stay safe:

● Privacy checkup: Customize your privacy settings to control who can contact you, who can see you online and add you to groups.

● Two-step verification: Enable two-step verification to protect against account takeovers.

● Block and report: Use WhatsApp's features to block and report suspicious accounts.

● Context cards: Read context cards carefully before replying to an unknown contact or group.

● Silence unknown callers: Turn it on to prevent call-based scams.

● Use the official app: Ensure you're using the official app to avoid fake versions that may compromise your account. Learn more here.