Facebook Messenger will now notify you if you're chatting to a scammer

Facebook's new feature will be particularly helpful in safeguarding minors

Facebook Messenger will notify you if it suspects you are chatting to a scammer or bad bot, the company announced on its blog.

We’re introducing a new privacy-preserving safety feature that will help millions of people avoid potentially harmful interactions and possible scams. https://t.co/ajJagpJjJ9

— Messenger (@messenger) May 21, 2020

The feature is programmed to work with encryption as moves Messenger towards full end-to-end encryption like WhatsApp.

Hence safety notices will alert you on Messenger if it spots any suspicious activity so you could take action to block or ignore someone.

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"Our strategy to keep people safe on Messenger not only focuses on giving them the information and controls they need to prevent abuse from happening, but also on detecting it and responding quickly if it occurs," says Jay Sullivan, director of product management of Messenger Privacy and Safety.

Facebook says the new feature is particularly helpful  in protecting minors even though at present machine learning already detects and disables adult accounts engaging in inappropriate interactions with children.

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"We developed these safety tips with machine learning that looks at behavioral signals like an adult sending a large amount of friend or message requests to people under 18," adds Sullivan.

"This ensures that the new features will be available and effective when Messenger is end-to-end encrypted."

The social media giant rolled out this feature on Android in March and will launch it globally on iOS next week.

This article was originally published on Pocket-lint.