Overview
- The Scam Alert feature was identified in WhatsApp's Android beta code and confirmed by multiple reports on Monday, and it remains under development without a public release date.
- The detection runs entirely on the user’s device using WhatsApp’s in-house models, which means message content is not uploaded to Meta servers and end-to-end encryption is maintained.
- When the feature flags a message from an unknown contact it will display a banner that reads something like “This may be a scam” and give users the choice to block and report the sender or trust the chat.
- WhatsApp is building a local transparency tool that stores logs of when Scam Alert was triggered on the device and those reports are not shared with WhatsApp or Meta.
- The tool will be optional and disabled by default, first appearing in Android code with iOS availability unconfirmed, and its real-world impact will depend on users enabling it and on the on-device model’s accuracy.