Meta announced that it"s launching some new anti-scam features for WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger. It"s also working with law enforcement and industry partners to enforce scam protection measures offline.
The social media giant is testing Facebook alerts for suspicious account requests. It will warn you when you send or receive a request from a suspicious account with red flags, such as no mutual friends, a different country location, and a recent join date.
Building on its safety features, WhatsApp will show warnings when it detects suspicious device linking requests. A potential scammer might trick you into linking their device to your WhatsApp account, possibly by making you scan a QR code under false pretenses. WhatsApp will warn you of potential scams and tell you from where the device linking request originated.
For Messenger, the company said it"s expanding the scam detection feature to more countries this month. Again, the feature detects potential scams, such as if a message from a new contact shows patterns of common scams, like suspicious job offers.
Meta is also doubling down on advertiser verification. While focusing on high-risk categories, it wants verified advertisers to drive 90% of ad revenue by year"s end, up from 70%. Low-risk businesses such as local ice cream shops will account for the remaining 10%, it said.
Spitting out some numbers, Meta said that it removed over 159 million scam ads last year and took down 10.9 million Facebook and Instagram accounts associated with criminal scam centers. It noted that scam operations are getting more sophisticated and their industrialization is also on the rise.
A recent joint operation saw 21 arrests by the Royal Thai Police, and Meta investigators disabled over 150,000 accounts associated with scam center networks. Apart from that, Meta also launched awareness campaigns in various regions to help people spot scams before they happen. It partnered with the US Department of State and others to launch the "Trapped in Scam Crime" campaign in Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and several other countries.