Meta Taps AI to Combat Fraud Across WhatsApp and Facebook

Meta has launched new artificial intelligence-powered anti-scam tools for its platforms WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger.

These tools are designed to help users of these platforms spot and avoid scammers, the company said in a Wednesday (March 11) press release.

“Across our apps, our systems find and remove malicious accounts,” Meta said in the release. “But we know that scammers try to avoid our detection and may not immediately use accounts maliciously. Our teams of experts built new tools to alert you before engaging with something suspicious.”

For WhatsApp, the company added a device linking warning that will alert users when a linking request may be suspicious. The alert will show where the request is coming from and warn that it could be a scam. This is designed to prevent a scam in which bad actors try to trick WhatsApp users into linking their account to another device.

For FaceBook, Meta is testing new warnings that alert users about suspicious friend requests. These will alert users when they send or receive friend requests involving an account that shows signs of suspicious activity.

For Messenger, the company is expanding its advanced scam detection to additional countries. This feature provides users with a warning when their chat with a new contact contains patterns of common scams. If a potential scam is detected by Meta’s artificial intelligence scam review, the company will provide information on common scams and suggest actions the user can take.

“We’re continuing to detect and disrupt sophisticated scam operations, including by working with industry peers and law enforcement around the world,” Meta said in the release. “We do this because we know that criminal networks target people regardless of borders and across messaging, dating apps, social media, crypto and other apps.”

The PYMNTS Intelligence and Featurespace collaboration “The Impact of Financial Scams on Consumers’ Financing and Banking Habits” found that digital communication channels are some of the most common ways scammers initially contact financial scam victims.

Email and social media each account for 19% of these initial contacts, ranking them behind only phone calls, which account for 20%, according to the report. In addition, SMS/text accounts for 9% of initial contacts, while dating apps account for 3%.

It was reported in November that users on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were exposed to an estimated 15 billion high-risk scam advertisements each day. When “organic” fraud such as non-paid scams in posts, groups and Marketplace were included, the total rose to 22 billion daily exposures.