As the holiday shopping season kicks off around the world, Meta (Facebook) has launched a global anti-scam awareness campaign to help people stay safe online and on its apps.
The latest anti-scam tools will be available in all its platforms including WhatsApp, Instagram and Marketplace, the company said.
For instance, “On WhatsApp, if someone you don’t know messages you or adds you to a group, you’ll now see a context card giving you more information about the user or the group,” it said.
Similarly, on Instagram, if an account the company suspects to be engaging in potentially scammy activities requests to follow a user, the platform will remind the user to be aware of potentially suspicious interactions.
On Marketplace, the company has rolled out warnings to alert a user if it detects messages that follow the patterns of known scam scenarios.
“Scammers are persistent and try to trick people in a variety of ways – malicious texts and emails, websites impersonating known brands, posts on social media, visual discovery platforms and discussion forums, and more. That’s why, we’re sharing the latest relevant safety tools we’ve launched this year,” the Mark Zuckerberg-owned company said.
Meta said it has also taken down over two-million accounts on its apps associated with scam centres in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines this year alone.
In India, Meta and WhatsApp release monthly transparency reports detailing user complaints received and the corresponding action taken by Meta, as well as its own preventive actions to combat abuse and remove violating content from its platforms.
“We’re running timely safety education efforts around the globe in partnership with public figures, NGOs, creators, consumer groups and others on an ongoing basis. Here are a few recent examples. We launched our safety campaign ‘Scams se Bacho’ featuring Bollywood star Ayushmann Khurrana in an effort to educate people on how to stay safe from online scams and promote safer digital practices,” the company said.
It has also released a musical remake of the iconic track “Oye Lucky Lucky Oye” with Abhay Deol to raise scam awareness.
“We’ve also partnered with popular content creators, including Akshath Acharya, thejhumroo, callmeshazzam, among many others to raise scam awareness and literacy in nine different regional languages, empowering users to take control of their online safety and secure themselves from online scams and frauds,” it said.
Meta’s national awareness campaign was a joint initiative with three government entities – the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), reinforcing its commitment to support the government’s goal of combatting the rising cases of scams and cyber frauds in the country, it added.
