Over 6.8 million accounts have been scrubbed off of WhatsApp as part of a crackdown on ‘criminal scam centres’, most of them in South East Asia. Meta is working to target too-good-to-be-true offers and unsolicited texts unleashed to steal people’s personal information or money.

The account deletions are part of wider company efforts to crack down on scams, WhatsApp parent Meta said, including new security tools.

In a significant move to combat the growing threat of online fraud, Meta has taken decisive action against scam activity on WhatsApp. As part of its broader effort to enhance platform safety, the tech company has removed millions of suspicious accounts and introduced new features designed to protect users from deception.