WhatsApp is adding a new "Scam Alert" feature that checks whether people really are who they claim.
The new tool uses artificial intelligence to check through messages from people who aren't in a user's contacts. It looks at "conversational structure and linguistic signals" to try and understand whether a message is likely to be part of a scam.
If WhatsApp thinks that it is, it will show a warning in the chat that will not be visible to the other person. The user can then decide whether to block or report the user sending it – or carry on as normal.
The tool has to be manually switched on. When it is, the app downloads a machine learning model that can check those messages – and is run entirely on the device, meaning that none of the conversation is sent to WhatsApp or to another third party, parent ccompany Meta stressed.
The new tool uses artificial intelligence to check through messages from people who aren't in a user's contacts. It looks at "conversational structure and linguistic signals" to try and understand whether a message is likely to be part of a scam.
If WhatsApp thinks that it is, it will show a warning in the chat that will not be visible to the other person. The user can then decide whether to block or report the user sending it – or carry on as normal.
The tool has to be manually switched on. When it is, the app downloads a machine learning model that can check those messages – and is run entirely on the device, meaning that none of the conversation is sent to WhatsApp or to another third party, parent ccompany Meta stressed.