WhatsApp banned more than 6.8 million accounts linked to scam operations in the first half of this year, its parent company Meta said in a statement Tuesday. “As part of our ongoing proactive work to protect people from scams, WhatsApp detected and banned over 6.8 million accounts linked to scam centers,” the company said.

Meta on Tuesday said it shut nearly seven million WhatsApp accounts linked to scammers in the first half of this year and is ramping up safeguards against such schemes.WhatsApp detected and banned more than 6.

This is also a great time to review your WhatsApp privacy settings. You can decide who’s allowed to add you to groups. This will instantly reduce your risk of getting pulled into random chats. Turning on two-step verification also adds an extra layer of security.