You Can Now Silence Calls From Unknown Callers On WhatsApp — Find Out How
Good if you want to avoid phone scams. But what if you’re waiting for an important call?
(Photo: Unsplash/Jonas Leupe)
The fake friend phone call scam is among the top five scams of last week on the National Crime Prevention Council’s (NCPC) Scam Alert website. You know, the one where someone calls via an unknown number and attempts to convince the victim that they’re a long-lost friend who has lost their phone or changed their number, before steering the conversation towards getting the unsuspecting victim to send them money.
Victims of this scam, among many others, would probably welcome WhatsApp’s latest privacy feature: Silence Unknown Callers. The new feature helps to automatically screen out spam, scams and calls from unknown people, and calls from unknown numbers will not ring on your phone. Unknown callers are people that you haven’t contacted or saved as a contact before, according to WhatsApp.
But what if you’re waiting for an important call? Fret not. While your phone will not ring, these calls will still be visible on your Call list and notifications, and you still have the option to call or message the silenced caller. However, once you do so, calls from this unknown number will not be silenced in future.
The feature is immediately available to users. To activate it, go to the Settings tab on WhatsApp, tap Privacy > Calls, then activate the Silence Unknown Callers function.
WhatsApp also announced the Privacy Checkup feature today (Jun 20). The step-by-step guide takes the user through various privacy settings to help them choose the right level of privacy protection, including choosing who can contact them, and adding a screen lock that uses Face ID to open WhatsApp. To access this, tap on Settings > Privacy and click on “Start checkup”.
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