Meta is rolling out a new optional scam alert feature for its instant messaging application, WhatsApp, leveraging on-device machine learning to detect suspicious messages.
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Earlier this year, Meta also introduced a feature designed to detect scams associated with device-linking requests on WhatsApp.
The new "Scam Alert" feature, currently being rolled out in a limited beta test, displays an alert to users if a conversation appears to involve a potential scam, according to a report by tech news site The Verge.
If the AI model determines that a message represents a potential scam attempt, an in-chat warning will appear to the user, which remains invisible to the other party.
Users can then decide how to proceed: block the contact, report them, or continue the conversation. If a user believes the warning was issued in error, they can mark the chat as trusted, removing the alert and preventing the "Scam Alert" feature from flagging that specific conversation again.
Furthermore, if a user opts to trust a conversation, they can choose to share the last five messages received with WhatsApp to help improve the feature's accuracy.
With more than 3 billion users, WhatsApp represents one of the largest arenas for scammer activity, including money transfer scams and "pig butchering" schemes.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stated that victims reported losing $425 million to scams on WhatsApp alone, out of a total exceeding $2.1 billion lost to social media scams in 2025.
Al Arabiya
