A call claiming that you are under investigation, a threat of immediate arrest, or an instruction to transfer money to avoid legal action, digital arrest scams are designed to create fear and pressure people into making hasty decisions. Fraudsters impersonate law enforcement officers, government officials or other authorities, using official-sounding language and fabricated claims to trick people into sharing personal information or making payments under the threat of arrest.
WhatsApp has several built-in safety and security features that help people recognise suspicious activity, secure their accounts and decide how to respond to unfamiliar contacts. Remember, no law enforcement agency/ government agency will ever contact you via phone or video call for any investigation.
Here are five WhatsApp safety features you should know about:
1. Silence Unknown Callers: Unsolicited calls can be used to catch people off guard and pressure them into responding immediately. Silence unknown callers helps to automatically screen out spam, scams, and calls from unknown people, including potential scammers for increased protection.
Safety tip: Enable Silence Unknown Callers through Settings > Privacy > Calls. You can see silenced calls from unknown callers in the Calls tab and your notifications so that you don’t miss anything important.
- More context before you pick up calls: When you get a call from someone not saved in your contacts, a little context can help you decide whether to pick up. On Android, you'll now see more information about a non-contact caller, like whether the number is from a different country and if you have any groups in common.
Safety Tip: Scammers rely on urgency – now you can take a beat and look out for additional context and information before answering.
- Stronger Two-step verification: Two-step verification is an extra protection layer that helps prevent someone from taking over your account, even if they get hold of your one-time passcode. Until now it was a six-digit PIN, which WhatsApp has now upgraded it to a full password: longer, alphanumeric, and even with special ch@racters to make it harder to guess.
Safety tip: Don’t share your verification code or OTP with anyone and if you've been using "123456," as your six-digit PIN on WhatsApp, this is your sign to upgrade.
- Block and Report Unwanted Contacts: If an unknown contact sends you suspicious messages, unsolicited links or requests for money or personal information, you can block and report the account on WhatsApp. Context cards in individual chats and groups provide people with additional information like if someone is your contact, if you have groups in common, whether their phone number is registered in a different country and if the account is recently created – all of which are indicators of potential scams.
Safety tip: If someone threatens you with arrest, demands money to resolve an alleged legal issue or pressures you to disclose sensitive information, block and report immediately. You can report scams to the Cyber Crime helpline number at 1930 or visit India’s National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (cybercrime.gov.in) or reach out to local police.
- WhatsApp device linking warning: Scammers try to trick people into linking their WhatsApp account to their device under false pretenses. To stay ahead of these tactics, WhatsApp alerts users when behavioral signals suggest a linking request might be suspicious, including showing users where the request is coming from and displaying a clear warning that it may be a scam, giving people the chance to pause and reconsider before it happens.
Safety tip: Never share a device-linking code or scan a QR code at the request. Regularly review Settings > Linked Devices and log out of any device you do not recognise.
