Meta is introducing new forms of protection in WhatsApp and Messenger meant to keep scammers at bay before any money or personal information changes hands, with a special focus on helping older adults, who are disproportionately targeted. The updates bring timely, plain‑language alerts to the screen whenever dangerous activity has been identified, in an act to thwart the social engineering ploys that underpin tech support scams as well as those that have played a big part in funding tech support scams.
What’s Changing in WhatsApp and Messenger
WhatsApp will now show a big interstitial if you try to share your screen while on a phone call with someone who isn’t in your contacts or has very little chat history with you. Screen sharing has emerged as a favorite trick for bad actors who instruct victims to share one‑time passcodes, bank logins or payment app details while they watch it all unfold. The new interstitial warns users not to show sensitive information and tells them to hang up if something feels wrong.
Messenger is testing better scam detection for messages coming in, using both behaviour signals and content signals to spot red flags of fraud — urgent pleas for money, lures of easy profit or impersonation (by itself) of banks and delivery firms. If a conversation appears to be suspicious, Messenger will bring up an alert explaining why, provide some examples of scamming and then give you the option of dismissing the counsel or blocking or reporting whoever is on the other end of that chat. Users may also opt to send the message to automated systems for further evaluation, according to Meta.
Most crucially, these are in‑the‑moment nudges (a close relative of David Sparks’s excellent school of screenshot + markup) rather than generic safety tips. The warnings come at exactly the moment where such damage is most likely to occur: as someone prepares to screenshare, or responds with empathy to a manipulative message.
Why Older Adults Are a Bull’s-Eye for Online Scammers
Fraudsters target older people because the windfall can be greater and some of the pressure tactics work better. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has reported billions in losses from people over 60 who were victims of online fraud, with median losses that far outpaced those of younger consumers. The AARP Fraud Watch Network and consumer protection agencies continue to highlight the same schemes: fake tech support pop‑ups that devolve into a request for remote control or screen sharing; “investment coaches” who bring chats from social media onto encrypted apps; romance scammers who take weeks narrowing in on someone before revealing urgent financial asks.
Messaging apps play a part in these schemes. A typical sequence: A stranger strikes up a conversation, moves the chat to WhatsApp or Messenger “for privacy,” and soon coaxes the target into letting down their guard — sharing their screen, say, or sending money by wire, crypto or gift cards (payment rails that can be difficult to reverse). Social isolation or cognitive decline, and unfamiliarity with these more recent safety practices, make vulnerable people easy marks for such automated gambits.
Will Alerts Actually Help Users Avoid Online Scams?
There is good evidence that well‑timed friction works. Behavioral studies from academia and national cyber agencies suggest that interventions are most effective at diminishing compliance with fraudulent requests when they intervene after a person’s risky action, include specific warning information about why an action is risky and use interruptive warnings. Banks have seen a reduction in authorized push‑payment losses after launching on‑screen warnings linked to suspect payees. The point is context: a direct, actionable message right at the moment when someone is about to do something irrevocable.
The problem is avoiding “alert fatigue.” But too many, or ill-defined, warnings can prompt users to ignore them. The way Meta is going about it — prompting screenshare warnings for unknown or low‑trust contacts and detailing the actual risk in Messenger — seems like a circumspect model so far, though, perhaps striking the right balance.
Meta Enforcement Efforts and Anti-Scam Partnerships
Together with the product updates, there have been about 8 million accounts related to scam activity disrupted by Meta and more than 21,000 Pages and profiles impersonating customer support removed from service. The company said a fraction of these networks is tied to industrialized scam factories based in regions of Southeast Asia and the Middle East, where trafficked labor is occasionally compelled into internet schemes.
Meta is also becoming a member of the National Elder Fraud Coordination Center, a coalition that marries law enforcement and companies like AARP, Amazon, Capital One, Google, Microsoft and Walmart. Cross-industry coordination is important because scammers cross platforms and payment methods; stopping them demands that messaging apps, telecom carriers, banks and retailers share signals and move fast when patterns emerge.
What Families Can Do at Home to Prevent Online Fraud
Do not share your screen with a stranger you do not know in real life, especially if that person asks you to open banking or email. No reputable company should have to see you type in passwords or one‑time codes. If you receive a message that is urgent, threatening or offers easy money, take the time to confirm it through a known phone number or website — not links in the chat.
Turn on WhatsApp two‑step verification and Messenger privacy controls, automatically install app updates, and have a conversation with older relatives about standard tricks. If money was transferred, seek help from the bank or card issuer right away, report the account in-app and to agencies like the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center or consumer protection agencies. Early intervention can literally be the difference between something being lost or recovered.
These new alerts won’t stop online scams, but they add exactly the kind of speed bump that can give people — especially those who are older — an additional moment to pause before making a dangerous click or tap. In this cat‑and‑mouse affair of scam prevention, that pause is potent.
