According to a study by the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) and ScamAdviser, victims of scams worldwide lose more than $1 trillion per year. And phone calls are one of the ways scammers communicate with their targets. To protect its users against phone scams, Google has developed a new technology called Scam Detection which, in essence, uses artificial intelligence to analyze the content of a call in real time, and immediately issue an alert if anything suspicious is detected.
The firm explains that its artificial intelligence analyzes calls and identifies patterns that are generally used by scammers. “For example, if a caller claims to be from your bank and asks you to urgently transfer funds due to an alleged account breach, scam detection will process the call to determine if it is likely “spam and, if so, may provide an audible and haptic alert as well as a visual warning that it may be a scam”we read in Google’s announcement.
A feature reserved for Google Pixels, in the United States
Unfortunately, this new real-time protection against scams is not available in France. Scam Detection only arrives on Google Pixel (Pixel 6 or newer) in the United States, via a beta program. And at the moment it is not known when Google might launch this feature in other countries and in other languages. But in any case, this is another example of the use of artificial intelligence.
In its press release, Google explains that its scam detector contains artificial intelligence models that work locally on the smartphone. This guarantees the confidentiality of call content, since no private information is sent to the firm’s servers.
Google will better protect you against malicious applications
Otherwise, Google has also just announced an update to Play Protect to allow this protection integrated into Android to better detect malicious applications. Now Play Protect can detect threats in real time. “By examining actual application activity patterns, real-time threat detection can now spot malicious applications that attempt to hide their behavior or remain inactive for a period of time before engaging in suspicious activity ”explains Google.
This feature is first coming to Pixel 6 smartphones and newer models. But it will be available on other Android devices later. Google also specifies that real-time detection will first focus on stalkerware, malware that collects personal data without the user’s consent. However, the firm will add other types of threats later.
- To better protect its users against phone scams, Google has developed a feature called Scam Detection
- This uses AI to analyze call content in real time to identify patterns usually used by scammers to deceive their victims.
- But for the moment, this feature is being beta tested in the United States, on Pixel smartphones.
- Google has also launched a real-time scanning feature on Play Protect, which strengthens user protection against malicious applications
- This feature is coming to Google Pixel, but it will be available on other models later
