Meta is rolling out an optional Scam Alert feature on WhatsApp, leveraging machine learning to flag potential fraud messages without alerting the sender, as part of its broader efforts to combat online scams across its platforms.
Meta is expanding its anti-scam measures on WhatsApp with a new optional feature called Scam Alert, designed to flag messages that may be part of a fraud attempt. According to Meta, the system uses machine learning that runs on the user’s device, allowing the app to analyse messages without showing the warning to the other person in the chat.
The company has been building out these safeguards for months. In March, Meta said it was rolling out new anti-scam tools across WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger, including warnings tied to suspicious device-linking requests on WhatsApp and alerts for questionable friend requests on Facebook. TechCrunch reported that these prompts are meant to slow users down before they hand control to scammers, while Meta said it had already removed more than 159 million scam ads globally in 2025.
On WhatsApp, the new warning is being tested in a limited release and is intended to work as an early signal rather than a hard block. If the system detects signs of fraud, users can block the contact, report the chat or continue anyway. If they believe the alert is a false alarm, they can mark the conversation as trusted, which removes the warning and stops it from appearing again for that thread.
Users who trust the conversation may also agree to share the last 5 messages they received with WhatsApp so the company can improve detection. Other recent protections have gone further: PCWorld and LiveMint reported that WhatsApp has also started warning users when they try to share their screen with unknown contacts during video calls, reflecting Meta’s wider push to use AI-driven checks to catch scams earlier without taking decision-making away from the user.
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