WhatsApp is introducing new features to help people see scams on the message service, the company announced on Tuesday. The company also said it dropped more than 6.8 million WhatsApp accounts related to criminal scam centers targeting people around the world.
The new features are designed to help detect frauds in both group and individual talks on the meta-owned platform.
For group talks, WhatsApp launches a security overview that will appear when someone who is not on your contact list adds you to a new group that you may not recognize. The security overview will include key information about the group, along with tips to stay secure.
For example, you will see if the person who added you is one of your contacts, and if any member of the group is your contact.
If you decide that you may recognize the group, you can choose to see the chat for more context. In all ways, notifications from the chat is silenced until you mark that you want to stay in the group.
As for single talks, WhatsApp realizes that scammers may try to start conversations with you elsewhere on the internet before asking to message private message services like WhatsApp. To protect against this tactic, the app tests new ways to draw attention to people before they start talking to someone who could try to cheat them.
For example, it works to carefully use users when they start chatting with someone not in their contacts showing them another context of which they message.
WhatsApp also shared information on how it worked with Openai to disapprove fraudulent efforts that were tracked to a Scam center in Cambodia.
“These tests went from offering payments for false likes to join others in a pyramid scheme Rent-a-Scooter, or attract people to invest in cryptocurrency,” WhatsApp explained in A Blog post.
“As Openai reported, the scammers used Chatgpt to generate the initial text message containing a connection to WhatsApp chat, and then quickly directed the target to a telegram, where they were assigned a task to like videos about Tiktok.
WhatsApp says users can protect themselves from scams by taking time before answering to think about whether the message reads as a legitimate task. They then have to question whether the request makes sense and whether they rush to act. If they claim to be a friend or family member, you must use another method of communication to control their identity.
