Meta has introduced a new Scam Alert feature for WhatsApp designed to help users identify and avoid fraudulent messages. The feature, currently rolling out in limited beta, operates through on-device machine learning technology to analyze incoming messages and flag those that appear suspicious.
When the system detects a likely scam attempt, users receive a warning notification visible only to them within the chat interface. The warning does not appear to the sender. Upon receiving a warning, users have several options: they can block the contact, report the message, or choose to continue the conversation. If a user believes a warning has been incorrectly flagged, they can mark the chat as trusted, which removes the warning and prevents future alerts for that particular conversation.
Users who mark a chat as trusted have the option to share the last five messages received with WhatsApp to help the company refine the feature’s accuracy over time. Meta has emphasized that no message content leaves the user’s device during the classification process, and nothing is automatically reported to WhatsApp, Meta, or other parties. The feature can be disabled by users at any time.
This launch follows earlier security efforts, as Meta deployed scam detection for device linking requests on WhatsApp earlier this year. The new tool addresses a significant problem: WhatsApp’s user base exceeds 3 billion people, making it a major target for fraudulent activity including wire transfer scams and pig butchering schemes. According to the Federal Trade Commission, scam victims reported losses totaling $425 million through WhatsApp alone during 2025, representing a substantial portion of the over $2.1 billion lost to social media scams that year.
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