WhatsApp Develops 'Scam Alert' Feature to Protect Users from Fraud
WHATSAPP is reportedly developing a new security feature called ‘Scam Alert’, designed to protect its users from potential fraud. This feature will provide early warnings to users when they receive suspicious messages from unknown numbers.
News of this feature’s arrival was first revealed by WABetaInfo, which discovered it within the update code for WhatsApp Beta for Android (version 2.26.22.2) on the Google Play Store as of June 2026. The feature is designed as an advisory system, meaning that WhatsApp will not immediately block the sender or unilaterally delete the message.
When a message arrives from an unknown contact, WhatsApp’s internal artificial intelligence (AI) model will analyse the content in real-time. If patterns of speech or indications of fraud are detected, a warning will immediately appear within the chat space stating: ‘This may be a scam’.
Following the warning, users are given full control to choose between two courses of action.
Many people are concerned that scanning messages will compromise WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption. However, WABetaInfo has confirmed that the entire message analysis process is performed locally directly on the user’s device (on-device processing).
The company stated that no data is sent to Meta’s servers or third parties because WhatsApp uses an independent AI model. As a form of transparency, detection history is recorded in a local activity log stored exclusively in the phone’s memory and can only be viewed by the user through the settings menu.
The Scam Alert feature is optional and is disabled by default. Users who desire this extra protection must manually enable it through the WhatsApp settings menu first. Once activated, the feature will work automatically in the background.
At this stage, the feature is still in intensive development and has not yet been released to all beta testers. However, it is predicted to arrive on Android devices first, while its availability for iOS devices has not yet been confirmed.