WhatsApp has begun rolling out a new optional "Scam Alert" feature, which uses a local machine learning model to warn users when scammers are targeting them.
Scam Alert is now available as part of a limited beta rollout while the company tests this new warning system with researchers in its Bug Bounty community.
"Today, we're sharing an early look at Scam Alert, a new, optional feature that runs an on-device machine learning model to alert a user about potential scam messages," WhatsApp said. "No message content leaves the device for classification or is auto-reported to WhatsApp, Meta, or anyone else. The feature complements end-to-end encryption while enabling a user-controlled, optional scam alert when the model believes there's a likely scam."
The model is trained on scam conversations reported by users and is designed to check whether incoming messages from non-contacts match known scam patterns using linguistic signals and probabilistic classification based on conversational structure.
If it detects a potential scam attempt, the user will see a chat warning asking them to block, report, or continue the conversation.
