Google Uses AI to Detect Fraud and Scams on Android Phones

Android users who opt in to the upcoming fraud and privacy features will receive scam warnings in real time. Gemini Nano, an Android version of Google’s AI technology, will listen for conversation patterns commonly associated with scams.

Possible fraud may be flagged when a caller asks you for private PINs and passwords or requests payments with a gift card. All the processing during such exchanges will be confined to the Android device, protecting user privacy, Google says. Here are additional security enhancements coming to Androids.

Google says it now scans 200 billion Android apps daily to help detect malware. But Google is also expanding on-device AI capabilities to uncover apps on phones that may be trying to cloak their actions to commit fraud or put the device at risk.

Here are additional security enhancements coming to Androids.

AI can recognize a theft, secure your device

Cyber thieves typically want to steal your personal data so they can access financial accounts or hijack your identity. But some criminals just want to nab the phone and sell it quickly.

A thief may steal the phone when a distracted user is taking pictures. Once the Camera app is enabled, a phone is past its lock screen and vulnerable. That’s when a crook will attempt to change the password on the run and perform a factory reset.

Through AI, Google’s Theft Detection Lock can determine that the phone was yanked out of your hand and that the poacher is frantically trying to escape by foot, bike or car. At that point, the phone automatically locks, and the crook won’t be able to reset the device without knowing your Google account credentials. Once the feature is well publicized, it could deter theft, Google says.

Android security features can help you find a lost phone, remotely lock the screen with a phone number and flag you when malware could put the device at risk.

Courtesy Google

Meanwhile, you will also be able to remotely lock or wipe the data off a lost or stolen phone through the Find My Device feature, similar to a feature on iPhones. But if for some reason you can't remember your Google account password, you'll still be able to lock the phone screen from afar with just your phone number and by answering a preset security challenge question.

Apple introduced Stolen Device Protection earlier this year. The new feature adds a layer of security when your phone is outside your familiar surroundings to prevent someone who stole your device from making changes to it or your Apple account.

An Android phone has other ways to detect it may be in the wrong hands, Google says. It will lock the screen if excessive false authentication attempts are made. These features, coming through a Google Play services update, will be compatible with devices that support Android 10 and higher.

You’ll learn more about a cell network’s vulnerability

By teaming with cellular service providers, Google says it will add more robust protections to Android 15 and roll them out over the next couple of years.

In one instance, you’ll be notified if the cell network you’re using is unencrypted, which could expose calls and messages to snoops attempting to intercept them. And you might be warned if Google finds that a crook is trying to inject a fraudulent message in a spam text. ​

Some notifications won’t flash on your screen

Many folks are accustomed to getting one-time passwords as an added layer of security when trying to log in to a secure site, commonly known as two-factor or multifactor authentication.

In the future, Android will not surface these one-time passwords in notifications, thwarting an attack that is sometimes perpetrated through malware or spyware. You’ll know through a notification that you have a new message, you just won’t see the contents of that message in the notification. Exceptions will exist.

You’ll still receive notifications of one-time passwords needed to connect an Android phone to a smartwatch or wearable.

Apps with sensitive information can be set apart

Google compares its Android 15 Private Space feature to a digital safe inside your phone.

You’ll be able to isolate banking, health and other apps with confidential data in a segregated area on your phone, away from prying eyes. Data and notifications are locked away from the rest of your device with a separate PIN.

You can even keep the existence of this private space, well, private.