WhatsApp detected and banned more than 6.8 million accounts linked to scam centers, most of them in Southeast Asia, according to Meta. WhatsApp and Meta worked with OpenAI to disrupt a scam traced to Cambodia that used ChatGPT to generate text messages containing a link to a WhatsApp chat to hook victims, according to the tech firms.

Many of the accounts were linked to criminal groups operating in South East Asia, the social media giant said.

This is WhatsApp’s latest effort to tighten the reins on fraud attempts that often start with unsolicited group adds, a tactic used frequently in spammy job scams or cryptocurrency cons.