# How We're Building Scam Alert on WhatsApp With End-to-End Encryption and Verifiability Guarantees

DevFeed: [How We're Building Scam Alert on WhatsApp With End-to-End Encryption and Verifiability Guarantees](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/how-we-re-building-scam-alert-on-whatsapp-with-end-to-end-encryption-and-verifiability-guarantees-129.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://engineering.fb.com/2026/08/12/security/how-were-building-scam-alert-whatsapp/>)

Author: Chris Wiltz

Published: 2026-08-12T13:00:28Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Engineering at Meta](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/engineering-at-meta.md>)

Topics: [End-to-End Encryption](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/end-to-end-encryption.md>), [Encryption](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/encryption.md>), [Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/machine-learning-artificial-intelligence.md>), [Inference](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/inference.md>), [Security](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/security.md>), [Bug Bounty](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/bugbounty.md>), [Social engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/social-engineering.md>)

Tags: [bug-bounty](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bug-bounty.md>), [encryption](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/encryption.md>), [machine-learning](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/machine-learning.md>), [privacy](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/privacy.md>), [scam](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/scam.md>), [security](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/security.md>), [security-privacy](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/security-privacy.md>), [social-engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/social-engineering.md>), [user-control](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/user-control.md>), [whatsapp](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/whatsapp.md>)

## AI overview

An early technical overview of WhatsApp's optional Scam Alert feature, which uses a small on-device machine learning model to classify potential scam messages while keeping message content on the device. The article explains how the design preserves end-to-end encryption through local processing, avoids automatic reporting, gives users control, and supports independent security review during a limited Beta rollout.

## Source excerpt

WhatsApp is committed to helping people stay safe while protecting the privacy of their messages. As scam tactics evolve -- from impersonation to social engineering to AI-generated lures -- we're always evolving as well, so that our protections stay ahead of scammers while protecting people's personal messages with end-to-end encryption. Today, we're sharing an early [...] Read More... The post How We're Building Scam Alert on WhatsApp With End-to-End Encryption and Verifiability Guarantees appeared first on Engineering at Meta.