Aug. 6 (UPI) -- WhatsApp has taken down 6.8 million accounts linked to scammers around the world, Meta said. WhatsApp rolled out a new anti-scam measure to alert users of scams. Many of the scams were tied to criminal organizations in South East Asia, according to Meta.

WhatsApp has taken down 6.8 million accounts that were “linked to criminal scam centers” targeting people online around that world, its parent company Meta said this week. The account deletions, which Meta said took place over the first six months of the year,

WhatsApp said it has shut down over 6.8 million accounts linked to scam centers, predominantly operating out of Cambodia. The takedown is part of a joint effort between Meta, OpenAI and WhatsApp to counter increasingly sophisticated scams plaguing messaging platforms.