Meta (NASDAQ: META) has banned more than 6.8 million WhatsApp accounts connected to confidence, relationship, and crypto investment schemes, particularly so-called “pig butchering” scams, as part of a broader effort to clamp down on criminals’ abuse of its messaging services.
“In the first six months of this year, as part of our ongoing proactive work to protect people from scams, WhatsApp detected and banned over 6.8 million accounts linked to scam centers,” said the company, in a press release. “Based on our investigative insights into the latest enforcement efforts, we proactively detected and took down accounts before scam centers were able to operationalize them.”
Meta, the tech giant behind Facebook and WhatsApp, said it was also “rolling out new WhatsApp tools to help people spot scams and stay safe while messaging.”
The company warned that criminals often utilized multiple applications and platforms during a single scam to evade detection, citing one example where the perpetrators “attempted to use our apps, mobile SMS, ChatGPT, TikTok, Telegram, and cryptocurrency.”
The most pervasive type of scam noted by Meta was where criminals attempt to form a relationship with the victim, often romantic, to gain their trust and then con them out of money, usually by getting them to transfer cryptocurrency to anonymized accounts or invest in fraudulent investments. This form of scam is often known as “Pig butchering,” named for how the bad actors “fatten up” their victims first to extract the most possible value.
WhatsApp comes into play as the interactions typically begin with an unsolicited text message or on a dating app, then move to social media, private messaging apps, and ultimately, payment or digital asset platforms.
“We’ve all been there: someone you don’t know attempting to message you, or add you to a group chat, promising low-risk investment opportunities or easy money, or saying you have an unpaid bill that’s overdue,” warned Meta. “The reality is, these are often scammers trying to prey on people’s kindness, trust and willingness to help – or, their fears that they could be in trouble if they don’t send money fast.”
Based on recent data from blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, pig butchering schemes accounted for 33.2% of all digital asset-related scam revenue in 2024.
Southeast Asia is a particularly notorious jurisdiction for this type of scheme. In November of 2023, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) froze approximately $225 million linked to an international human trafficking syndicate in Southeast Asia responsible for pig butchering scams. More recently, on March 23, the New York Times published an investigative report into Southeast Asia-based scammers and their reliance on the infamous Cambodia-based Huione Guarantee darknet marketplace.
In a report published Tuesday, Meta also cited a recent example in which it combined forces with OpenAI to disrupt scam efforts linked to a criminal organization in Cambodia. As OpenAI reported in June, the scammers used ChatGPT to generate the initial text message containing a link to a WhatsApp chat, and then directed the victim to Telegram, where they were assigned a task of liking videos on TikTok. The scammers gradually built trust by sharing how much the target had already ‘earned’ in theory, before asking them to deposit money into a crypto account.
Meta linked many of the now-banned WhatsApp accounts to “criminal scam centers” using similar modus operandi, “often fueled by forced labor and operated by organized crime primarily in Southeast Asia.”
The bans were part of a broader effort designed to intercept criminal groups before they could establish relationships with their victims. This early stage is especially crucial when it comes to confidence and romance scams, as victims can often be too embarrassed to come forward and report the crime after the fact for fear of being labeled gullible by friends, family, or authorities, which naturally makes law enforcement harder.
One of the new tools that Meta hopes will hamper scammers is a WhatsApp feature that will alert users when they are added to a group by someone not in their contact list. Fraudsters often use this tactic to promote fake investment schemes.
Bacon boom
Data from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released in March showed that U.S. consumers reported losing more than $12.5 billion to fraud in 2024, representing a 25% increase over the prior year.
This was backed up by data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, which identified $9.9 billion lost to crypto schemes in 2024, a figure it expected to rise to $12.4 billion as more illicit addresses are identified.
Chainalysis also revealed that high-yield investment scams (HYIS), a type of Ponzi scheme that promises passive income and high returns in short periods of time, and pig-butchering remained the two largest types of scams, accounting for over 80% of all funds lost by victims in 2024. Pig butchering scams in particular rose 40% from the previous year and accounted for 33.2% of all digital asset-related scam revenue in 2024.
These worrying stats didn’t go unnoticed by U.S. lawmakers, and in April, bipartisan legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives to combat financial fraud and pig butchering scams that target older U.S. citizens, particularly via online means.
The ‘Guarding Unprotected Aging Retirees from Deception (GUARD) Act’ was introduced on April 21 by Republican Representative Zach Nunn (R-IA) and co-sponsored by fellow Republican Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) along with Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ). The bill would support law enforcement officers in using blockchain technology and permit federal law enforcement to assist state and local law enforcement with tracing tools for blockchain technology.
“In 2023 alone, the Iowa Attorney General’s office received more than 13,000 financial fraud reports resulting in approximately $42.6 million in financial losses,” said Rep. Nunn. “Iowa retirees shouldn’t have to worry about fraudsters robbing them of their savings with fake investment schemes. But if they are scammed, law enforcement should have the tools needed to bring their case to justice.”
The GUARD Act was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary and Committee on Financial Services, where it awaits further debate.
Watch | Certihash Sentinel Node: Improving cybersecurity with blockchain
title=”YouTube video player” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen=””>
Source: https://coingeek.com/meta-wipes-out-6-8-million-whatsapp-accounts-linked-to-scams/