WhatsApp banned around 72 lakh accounts to curb rising online scams
The rise of online scams is on the rise every passing day. WhatsApp is one of the most popular apps that fall prey to this because of the massive amounts of WhatsApp users in India. Scammers often approach the victims and people via WhatsApp. In order to curb this, WhatsApp India banned over 72 lakh accounts in July.
WhatsApp banned around 72 lakh accounts to curb rising online scams
These scams are as simple as enticing users with a work-from-home job offer that allows people to earn some side extra money. Even, users have been facing getting calls from unknown international numbers claiming the same scam. In the WhatsApp Monthly Report for India, WhatsApp also shared the number of report spam requests they received in order to ban these accounts on users’ feedback.
According to the reports, some users were banned even before they were reported. In terms of numbers, out of 7,228,000 banned users, 3,108,000 were banned before they were reported because of suspicious and malicious activity.
“We are an industry leader among end-to-end encrypted messaging services in preventing and combating abuse. In addition to our safety features and controls, we employ a team of engineers, data scientists, analysts, researchers, and experts in law enforcement, online safety, and technology developments to oversee these efforts,” – says WhatsApp India in their WhatsApp Monthly Report.
Actions to be taken by normal users
If any users come across any such scammer, they can ‘block’ them and even ‘report problematic content’ within the app. WhatsApp claims that it pays close attention to user feedback and engages with several specialists. These specialists help stem misinformation, promote cybersecurity, and preserve election integrity.
A few months ago, WhatsApp encouraged users to block and report suspicious calls so that appropriate actions could be taken against the scammers. This is because several users were getting unknown calls from different countries which include +251, +60, +62, +254, +84, etc. It included not just voice calls but also video calls and not to further lucrative job offers as well.
According to a WhatsApp spokesperson statement: “Blocking and Reporting suspicious messages/ calls is an important step to effectively combat scams and when users receive calls from unknown international or domestic phone numbers, WhatsApp provides a convenient way to block and report suspicious accounts. It’s important to report these accounts to WhatsApp so that we can take the required action against them and ban them from the platform. Users can also control who sees their personal details and their online presence by using our privacy controls. Keeping your personal details visible to only your contacts can help safeguard your account against bad actors.”
However, users must note that a call from an international number doesn’t imply that the call is from a different country. This is because the calls are transmitted by the internet. They can call through international numbers via WhatsApp even when right beside you in the same country. Thus, if you come across any such scammer, don’t forget to report them to WhatsApp and block them immediately on your phone.
