WhatsApp Bans Millions of Accounts Linked to Scams

Meta Platforms announced it has deleted 6.8 million WhatsApp accounts in the first half of the year that were linked to scam networks. Many of these organized crime rings are based in Southeast Asia and rely on forced labor.

WhatsApp officials proactively detected and removed the accounts before they could be used for scams. The company collaborated with OpenAI to combat a criminal network in Cambodia that promoted a pyramid scheme involving rental scooters, using ChatGPT to draft instructions to victims.

In the US alone, losses from online scams reached $5.6 billion in 2023, with $4 billion related to 'pig-butchering' scams.