WhatsApp has removed nearly seven million accounts tied to global scams in just six months, the BBC reports.
According to parent company Meta, many of these accounts were traced back to scam centres in South East Asia, some operated by criminal networks using forced labour. The revelation comes alongside WhatsApp’s rollout of new anti-scam tools, including a warning system for users added to group chats by people outside their contacts.
Meta says its systems detected and disabled millions of accounts before scammers could make them operational. The tactic is part of a larger and more troubling pattern: bad actors pose as legitimate contacts, luring victims into group chats or private conversations, then inveigling them into bogus investment schemes.
A common method involves hijacking WhatsApp accounts or mimicking familiar profiles. Victims are typically contacted first via SMS, before being nudged to continue the conversation on messaging platforms like WhatsApp.
Once the victim is drawn in, the bait is set.
In one case, WhatsApp, Meta, and OpenAI collaborated to disrupt a Cambodian operation. The scam promised cash rewards for liking social media posts. But behind the promise was a web of lies promoting a fake rent-a-scooter pyramid scheme. ChatGPT had been used to draft instructions for victims, blending artificial intelligence with old-fashioned deceit.
Meta said such scams often conclude on cryptocurrency or digital payment platforms. “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 warned.
Fraudsters don’t just manipulate people, they manipulate platforms, trends, and technology. What starts with a friendly message ends with drained savings and lost trust.
The UK’s consumer rights group, Which?, welcomed Meta’s action but said it doesn’t go far enough. “Meta must do much more to stop these criminals across all its platforms,” it said.
A Small Dent?
Chris Hauk, Consumer Privacy Advocate at Pixel Privacy, says: “I applaud any attempt to protect users against scammers. Unfortunately, we can’t know for sure whether the 6.8 million scam accounts that were banned even puts a small dent in the number of scam accounts. The private nature of WhatsApp ensures that scammers can’t be immediately detected, unless a targeted user complains about the account.
Hauk says WhatsApp’s new anti-scam features should make it easier for users to avoid scammers who may add them to a group or send an individual message as a starting point for a scam.
“Moderating private chat groups where there is an expectation of privacy is much more difficult than moderating an open forum,” adds Paul Bischoff, Consumer Privacy Advocate at Comparitech. “Chat groups are insular and have no public visibility, so scams and other inappropriate content are less likely to be flagged. In the wrong hands, they can be used to perpetrate scams, sell illicit goods and services, spread malware, or distribute CSAM.”
The Full Scope isn’t Known
Bischoff says while WhatsApp taking down 6.8 million accounts should be applauded, but as with any statistic from Meta, the full scope of the problem isn’t known. “Is 6.8 million accounts a lot for a service with 3 billion active users? Did Meta ban half of the scammers on WhatsApp or just a tenth of them? No one knows, probably not even Meta. Furthermore, banning accounts is only a temporary measure. Scammers can easily create new ones.”
WhatsApp users should heed the new alerts that let them know if they’ve been added to a chat group by someone not in their contacts lists, Bischoff says. “This is one of the most common ways that scammers pull people into their chats.”
Information Security Buzz News Editor
Kirsten Doyle has been in the technology journalism and editing space for nearly 24 years, during which time she has developed a great love for all aspects of technology, as well as words themselves. Her experience spans B2B tech, with a lot of focus on cybersecurity, cloud, enterprise, digital transformation, and data centre. Her specialties are in news, thought leadership, features, white papers, and PR writing, and she is an experienced editor for both print and online publications.
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