Facebook Messenger will battle scams with pop-up warnings

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Facebook Messenger will battle scams with pop-up warnings
Facebook announced in a blog post today that the company is rolling out a new feature for Messenger that displays warning messages when a suspicious person contacts users. The ultimate goal is to detect potential scammers before they can do any harm. Users under the age of 18 will see a warning if they receive a message from an adult they don't know. Similar tactics are employed when users are contacted by someone who's not on their list of friends.

The social network uses advanced machine learning algorithms to identify scammers. When someone is trying to impersonate one of your friends, for example, the system will notice the similarity in names and display "This chat is with someone whose name looks like another friend's" message. You can then easily block the suspicious individual from the same chat window.


"These features show a great integration of the technical tools that will help curb bad behavior on the platform, while also reminding people of their own control over their account," said Stephen Balkam, CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute.

Despite all modern security measures like encryption, password protection, and identity checks, scammers find elaborate schemes to trick their victims. The new feature in Messenger aims to keep users informed and remind them to be careful when chatting with strangers.

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