Google is pushing out a new set of features for Android today, including additional ways to protect yourself through new scam detection features. With the power of AI, Google is adding two new ways to get the jump on scams and stay ahead of potential fraud. Scams have become more rampant in the past few years, with scammers finding new and inventive ways to try and steal your sensitive information.
To help protect you from these kinds of scams, Google is adding new scam detection features for both calls and messages. Scam detection in messages was also announced as part of four new features coming to Android devices. Scam detection for calls is also being rolled out so you can be more vigilant in avoiding any potential pitfalls.
Last year, scammers ended up stealing more than $1 trillion globally from unsuspecting victims on mobile. A big part of how they were able to achieve this was with new generative AI tools. So, Google is fighting fire with fire by introducing scam protections that use AI to alert you of potential scams.
Android now incorporates scam detection into messages
Scam texts are nothing new, but they have become increasingly sophisticated. With the advent of AI, scammers, just like everyone else, have a bunch of new tools at their fingertips. If you’re using Google Messages, you’ll have one more way to protect yourself. Rolling out this week, Android users who use Google Messages will get alerts when the app detects that a message may be a scam.
Alerts pop up in the message thread along with the rest of the conversation. On top of that, the alert gives you two ways to respond. If you’re certain it’s not a scam, you can tap a button to tell Google Messages this. There’s also a button to “report & block” right next to that.
Text scams these days can start off appearing as a harmless conversation. However, they can grow into something more dangerous, with scammers finding ways to convince people to share sensitive information. Google says it worked with financial institutions around the world to better understand these new scams. Specifically, the most common scams that people are currently facing.
The on-device AI can also detect these scams in real time across SMS, MMS, and RCS messages. So you’re covered no matter the type of message that it is. It’s also worth noting that this setting is on by default. However, you can always turn it off, though you probably shouldn’t. The scam detection also only applies to people who aren’t in your contacts list. This feature will launch first in English in the US, UK, and Canada on Pixel devices from the Pixel 6 onward. More countries will gain the feature at a later date.
Google is expanding its most advanced Scam Detection for calls to more users
Scam Detection for calls was technically rolled out late last year, but it was only available through a limited beta. Starting today, Google will begin expanding it to more users. When it was rolled out last year, Google used different AI models to analyze calls for potential scams. On Pixel 9 devices, it used Gemini Nano. On Pixel 6+ devices, Google says it used “smaller, robust on-device machine-learning models.”
Gemini Nano outperformed the other models in all scenarios. So now, Google is expanding the availability of the beta to all English-speaking Pixel 9+ users in the US. There are some things to keep in mind with scam detection in calls compared to messages. Unlike the Messages app, scam detection in the Phone by Google app is disabled by default. Google says this is to give users more control over the feature because call audio is “more ephemeral compared to messages, which are stored on the device.”
Like the scam detection in messages, however, it only applies to non-contacts. So you won’t get alerts for calls happening with people in your contacts list.
