On Tuesday, August 5, Meta announced it had shut down nearly seven million WhatsApp accounts linked to scammers during the first half of 2025 and is intensifying efforts to combat such fraud.
“Our team identified and disabled these accounts before the criminal organizations behind them could exploit them,” said Clair Deevy, WhatsApp’s External Affairs Director.
Often operated by organized gangs, these scams range from fake cryptocurrency investments to get-rich-quick pyramid schemes, WhatsApp executives explained during a briefing.
“There is always a catch—and that should be a red flag for everyone: you have to pay upfront to receive promised returns or earnings,” the Meta-owned platform said in a recent blog post.
WhatsApp detected and banned more than 6.8 million scam-linked accounts, mostly concentrated in Southeast Asia, according to Meta’s data.
In partnership with OpenAI, WhatsApp and Meta also disrupted a scam originating from Cambodia that used ChatGPT to craft deceptive messages. These messages contained links directing victims to WhatsApp chats, where scammers would attempt to lure them.
To better protect users, Meta has introduced prompts warning WhatsApp users when they are added to group chats by unfamiliar contacts.
New “safety overviews” now provide details about the group, tips to spot scams, and an easy option to leave the chat quickly.
“We’ve all experienced it: being added to a group by a stranger promising low-risk investments, easy money, or claiming you have an unpaid bill,” Meta said in its blog. “The truth is, these are often scammers preying on people’s kindness, trust, or fear of trouble if they don’t act fast.”
