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Bitdefender’s free scam-fighting tool is now available locally on a popular Messenger alternative.
Bitdefender has announced that its scam-fighting chatbot Scamio is now available to integrate with the WhatsApp messaging platform in Australia.
The free tool was first launched for Meta’s Messenger app last year, with Bitdefender promising to roll the chatbot out on other platforms.
Scamio runs on any web browser or inside Messenger and now WhatsApp (with Telegram to come in the future) and is powered by natural language processing to act as – in the words of Bitdefender – a “strong second opinion” on scam messages.
The tool can analyse emails, text messages, links, and QR codes; a user drops any questionable content into the chatbot and describes how it was received, and Scamio delivers a verdict.
“The rapid rise of AI adoption by cyber criminals to dupe people out of money, steal personal information, and infiltrate their digital lives has become a true game changer,” Ciprian Istrate, senior vice-president of operations, consumer solutions group at Bitdefender, said in a statement last year.
“Online scams that were once easy to spot have become difficult to detect with the naked eye. Scamio evens the playing field by giving reliable probability of malicious activity based on message content and context. It’s like having a personal assistant you can always talk to and rely on to help protect your digital life.”
As well as using the drag-and-drop functionality, users can also add Scamio as a contact in WhatsApp, turning it into a “personal scam checker”.
While the chatbot is free, it does require registration.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.