WhatsApp Scam Alert: When a message suddenly flashes on the mobile screen from an unknown number, most of the people open it without thinking. The trouble starts when the other person starts the conversation by introducing himself as a senior bank official, an old friend or a representative of a well-known company. What is said in the message seems so simple and ordinary that at first glance one does not see anything dark in the story.

During the conversation, very clever pressure is created to send money, click on an unknown link or share important personal information. With an aim to protect common people from these digital scams, messaging platform WhatsApp is rolling out a special security shield. The company is currently working on a new feature called ‘Scam Alert’, which will alert the user as soon as any suspicious conversation starts.

Identification of scams from unknown numbers

Fraudsters’ greatest weapon in the digital world is winning trust. Thugs often make excuses of some emergency so that the other person doesn’t have a chance to think. They pretend to be bank employees and show fear of account closure or pretend that an acquaintance is in trouble. It becomes very difficult for a normal user to distinguish between a normal conversation and a scam script.

WhatsApp’s new security system will mainly monitor chats from unknown numbers. Its primary goal is to sound an alarm to the user before any harm is done. When the user realizes in time that the opposite person may be a fake, he will think ten times before falling into any trap.

The smart system will work inside the phone itself

From a technical point of view, this feature is based on WhatsApp’s advanced machine learning model. The most important thing is that this model checks the message pattern inside your own smartphone. This does not mean at all that as soon as a Hi-Hello comes from a new or unknown number, the system will declare it as a fraud.

The system attempts to capture specific methods, words and communication patterns that are commonly seen in previously detected fraud cases. Apart from this, the situation regarding privacy is also very clear. According to Meta, no chat content is sent to the company’s servers for this investigation. All analysis remains secure within the phone itself, so the privacy of the user’s private conversations is not affected.

Full control in the hands of the user

The biggest feature of this new feature is that it does not force any decision on the user. When the machine learning model detects an error in an unknown chat, it displays a clear warning on the screen. The next step after this is entirely up to the user’s own understanding.

If the user feels that the opposite person is really suspicious, he has the option to block that number at that moment. If the user wants he can also complain or report against the number. On the other hand, if the message turns out to be from a distant relative or acquaintance and the alert is mistakenly detected, the user can mark the chat as ‘trusted’ and continue the conversation normally. The system does not register any chat reports on its own accord, this requires direct permission from the user.

How to activate the new feature

This new security cover will not start automatically, but you will need to change the settings for this. If this feature has arrived in your account, the method to activate it is very simple.

1. Open WhatsApp on your phone and go to main settings.
2. Tap on the ‘Account’ option in Settings.
3. Here you will see a new option called ‘Scam Alert’.
4. Go to this option and turn on the toggle.

Currently, this feature is only made available to select Android beta testers. If you don’t see this setting in your account yet, don’t try to force it through any external or unknown application. The company is gradually rolling it out to all users. iPhone users will have to wait a little longer for this feature.