The messaging platform introduces a new opt-in feature that uses artificial intelligence to identify and flag suspicious conversations, giving users greater control over potential scams without compromising privacy.
WhatsApp is introducing a new scam warning system designed to flag suspicious conversations before users are drawn into fraud, according to the company’s latest announcement. The feature relies on artificial intelligence to assess messages from people who are not in a user’s contacts, looking for patterns in language and conversation style that may indicate a scam. If a chat appears risky, WhatsApp will display a warning inside the conversation, visible only to the intended recipient.
The alert is meant to give users a choice rather than block access automatically. After seeing the warning, a person can decide whether to ignore the chat, block the account or report it. They can also continue the conversation if they believe it is legitimate. WhatsApp says the feature is opt-in and works by downloading a machine-learning model to the user’s device, where the analysis takes place locally.
That privacy approach appears designed to address one of the biggest concerns around anti-fraud tools: how to catch scams without exposing private messages. WhatsApp says the content being reviewed will not be sent to the company, Meta or any third party. The same privacy framework has already been used in other WhatsApp AI features, including private message summaries rolled out earlier this year, which relied on Meta’s Private Processing system.
The move comes as Meta has widened its anti-scam efforts across its platforms. In March, Meta said it had launched additional scam-detection tools for WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger, including warnings about device linking on WhatsApp and suspicious friend requests on Facebook. The company also said it removed more than 159 million scam ads worldwide in 2025, underscoring the scale of the problem it is trying to contain.
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