Google has announced a new call screening feature for Android phones, which gives recipients a heads up if a scammer is attempting to impersonate a person they know.
The new tool is part of the Phone app and relies on RCS technology to recognise the device the caller is using. The handshake, between your device and the callers’, verifies the original device. If the phone detects an impersonator, the recipient will get a warning so they can hang up quick sharpish. It’ll be available on phones running Android 12 and upwards.
You’ll need to be using Phone by Google for it to work, but it sounds like a neat way to combat the growing issue of scammers using AI voice cloning to trick people into thinking their friends and family are the ones making the call.
In a blog post describing the new feature, Google says: “When a contact calls you and you’re both using Phone by Google, their device sends a silent confirmation signal in real time to your device to verify the call is legitimate and truly coming from the contact’s device. Because this digital handshake uses end-to-end encrypted Rich Communication Services (RCS) technology, it is completely private.
“If a scammer tries to impersonate your contact, that initial confirmation signal will be missing. Your device will instantly notice this and ping your contact’s actual device to double-check. If their real device says, “I’m not making a call right now,” you’ll get a warning on your screen advising you to hang up immediately. This proactive alert helps you avoid falling victim to deepfake impersonation and call spoofing in real time. You can disable this feature at any time in the Phone by Google app settings.”
Google already has pretty good scam call detection technology for the regular kind of BS most of us get bombarded with multiple times per day, as well as the brilliant call screening service that deals with the time-wasters and scammers in the background so we don’t have to.
However, there’s a growing threat brought on by the use of advanced AI Deepfake technology. Indeed Interpol reckons impersonation fraud is responsible for around $400 billion in global losses.
Scammers are able to spoof the phone number of your trusted contact without the need for the device itself, while the AI voice cloning technology does the rest.
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