WhatsApp says it has taken down 6.8 million accounts linked to scammers targeting people around the world in the first half of this year. Many were tied to scam centres run by organised criminals in South East Asia, who often used forced labour in their operations, the Meta-owned messaging platform says.

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.

The company announced that it took down over 6.8 million WhatsApp accounts linked to criminal scam centers targeting people around the world.