Meta Removes 6.8 Million WhatsApp Scam Accounts in First Half of 2025

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In an announcement on staying safe from scams on its WhatsApp instant messaging platform, Meta revealed it had deleted 6.8 million accounts in the first half of 2025. It highlighted the huge global scale of these scams, confirming these accounts were “linked to criminal scam centers targeting people across the internet and around the world.”

These scam centers, primarily based in Southeast Asia, have been used to facilitate fraud, including fake cryptocurrency investments and pyramid schemes. These centers are reported to often use forced labor in their operations.

The announcement comes as WhatsApp introduces new anti-scam tools, including a safety overlay when users are added to groups by people not in their contacts. This overlay alerts users to possible fraud and helps prevent phishing.

In an example of cross-company cooperation, Meta worked with OpenAI to disrupt a scam network in Cambodia that had used ChatGPT to generate messages with links to WhatsApp chats, before directing marks to Telegram to be given tasks for which they would be paid in crypto. These tasks ranged from pyramid schemes to dishonest marketing practices, like paying for “likes.” Marks are often asked to deposit money in a crypto account as a task.

WhatsApp’s crackdown comes amid a global fraud crisis. US consumers alone lost $12.5 billion to scams in 2024, an increase of 25% from the previous year.