5 WhatsApp Safety Features to Protect Yourself From Online Scams in 2026

From fake OTP requests to suspicious calls and phishing links, scammers are targeting millions of users online. Here are 5 powerful WhatsApp safety features you should enable right now to protect your account, personal data, and money.

Learn how to safeguard your personal data and financial information using five essential WhatsApp safety features designed to block scammers and secure your account.

With over three billion monthly users, WhatsApp is the go-to app for staying connected. Unfortunately, that massive audience also makes it a goldmine for fraudsters deploying phishing links, fake offers, and impersonation scams.

Scammers are getting smarter. From fake officials and fraudulent businesses to suspicious one-time passwords, modern online scams are designed to look convincing and create a false sense of urgency.

To help you stay one step ahead, WhatsApp offers multiple layers of protection and safety tools. These features strengthen your account security, help you spot suspicious activity, and give you total control over who can contact you.

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Here are five anti-scam tools on WhatsApp that can help you stay safe Silence unknown callers:

Enabling the feature helps to automatically screen out spam, scams, and calls from unknown people, including potential scammers, for increased protection. You can see silenced calls from unknown callers in the Calls tab and your notifications.

Context cards:

Scammers often rely on people acting in a state of urgency and panic before noticing the warning signs. Context cards in individual chats and groups provide people with additional information, such as whether 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. From there, people can make an informed decision if they should reply, add them as a contact, block them or report them.

Screenshare warning:

WhatsApp prompts people with warnings when they attempt to share their screens with an unknown contact during a video call. Scammers may put pressure on their targets to share their screen to trick people into giving away sensitive information, including bank details or verification codes. With this safety tool, WhatsApp gives users more context to spot and avoid scams.

WhatsApp device linking warning:

Scammers may try to trick people into linking their WhatsApp account to their device under false pretences. To stay ahead of these tactics, WhatsApp alerts users when behavioural 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.

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Two-step verification:

Enabling Two-Step Verification adds a layer of security to your WhatsApp account, which requires a six-digit PIN when resetting and verifying your WhatsApp account. This helps protect people in situations where scammers attempt to take over accounts through unauthorised access to verification codes.