New Android protections to help keep you safe from mobile scams
Mobile scams have evolved far beyond basic robocalls and phishing texts, turning into sophisticated operations that use spoofed numbers, fake bank alerts, and AI voice cloning. In fact, in a recent survey Google conducted with YouGov across the U.S., Canada, and Australia, 40% of smartphone users told us they are now “very” or “extremely” concerned about mobile fraud.
With scams growing harder to spot, it’s nearly impossible for users to catch every red flag themselves. That’s why Android’s built-in defenses actively intercept these threats before they reach you. AI-powered Scam Detection in Phone by Google and Google Messages now flags more than 5 million suspected scam calls and texts every month, and according to a Google-commissioned report by Leviathan Security Group, these types of protections highlight how Android devices provide the highest level of built-in scam and fraud protection. 1
Today, we’re rolling out a new set of scam defense capabilities: Enhanced protection mode in Google Messages; expanded chat scam alerts across more devices; and call-forwarding and screen-sharing safeguards.
New and Expanded Defenses Against Messaging Scams
While Scam Detection in Google Messages already flags traditional and conversational scams, attackers are adopting more nuanced techniques to slip past standard filters. We’re rolling out multi-layered protections across Google Messages and third-party messaging apps to safeguard you:
Enhanced protection mode in Google Messages: This new opt-in security setting enables our most powerful and intelligent defenses to help you stay better protected against complex scam threats. Enhanced protection will be rolling out in the coming weeks. The setting unlocks:
- Scam Detection enhanced with Private AI Compute: Scammers often disguise their true motives behind slow-burn conversations. Enhanced protection mode enables Scam Detection in Google Messages to tap into Google’s most capable cloud Gemini models to evaluate complex message context and understand a scammer’s intent more quickly when you’re in a conversation with an unknown sender. This secure cloud analysis augments and extends our existing on-device detection, allowing us to identify novel and sophisticated attacks, actively uncovering and stopping abusers who try to hide their tracks. To help protect your privacy, we do this cloud analysis in Private AI Compute, where your data is encrypted and processed in a secure dedicated space—keeping it private to you and inaccessible to anyone else, including Google. 2
- Smarter link safety checks with Gemini Nano: Google Messages already uses URL protections to flag links to known malicious and phishing websites. But scammers frequently register brand-new websites that haven’t been cataloged yet. With Enhanced protection enabled, on-device Gemini Nano levels up this protection by integrating real-time web signals to evaluate whether an unfamiliar link is trustworthy before you tap. 3
- Built-in checkpoints for unfamiliar links: With Enhanced protection enabled, redesigned warnings give you extra time and clearer context to pause before tapping links sent from numbers not saved in your contacts, keeping you safe from accidental clicks. This feature was previously only available on devices in select countries or on devices with Android Advanced Protection enabled. 4
Expanding notification scam alerts to hundreds of millions more users: We launched Scam Detection in chat notifications on Pixel to warn you about suspicious messages directly from your notification shade before you even open a popular chat app. We’re partnering with Android device makers 5 to bring this vital on-device protection to hundreds of millions of additional users later this year.
Disrupting Social Engineering Phone Scams
Scammers aren’t just in your inbox — they’re also targeting your calls and looking for ways to peek at your personal data. We’re introducing new safeguards to keep your sensitive information and accounts secure.
- Automatic screen-share privacy: Screen sharing is great for helping family or collaborating with coworkers, but not when you need to type in a password and banking information such as your credit card security number. Android already automatically hides sensitive info in native apps, and now that same protection extends to Chrome and Android WebView—automatically blanking out login fields and payment screens during live screen-share sessions. 6
- Proactive call-forwarding protection: Scammers often try to secretly redirect your incoming calls to another number so they can steal one-time passcodes (OTPs) and take over your accounts. Android now blocks apps from quietly enabling call forwarding in the background. If a scammer attempts to trick you into manually typing an MMI forwarding code on your phone's dial pad, Android proactively warns you before it can take effect. 7
Proven Scam Defense: What Third-Party Testing and Users Say
These latest Android scam and fraud defense features build on our industry-leading protections, backed by independent technical testing and real-world consumer experiences.
An independent, Google-commissioned evaluation by Leviathan Security Group 8 analyzing built-in scam defenses across Android and iOS found that Android devices provide the strongest out-of-the-box protections. Android consistently outperformed iOS across core built-in tools, including proactive call screening, fake call detection, and Circle to Search threat warnings.
Google and YouGov also recently surveyed 4,500 smartphone users to learn more about their experiences with mobile scams. 9 While most respondents said they have never fallen victim to a mobile scam and felt their device was at least “moderately effective” at protecting them, experiences varied significantly by device type. Compared to Google Pixel users, Apple iPhone users were significantly more likely to tell us they have fallen victim to a scam and that their device was not “effective at all” at protecting them from scams:
Respondents also told us they’re increasingly worried about emerging, sophisticated fraud tactics like spoofed (faked) calls:
Shutting Down Bank Impersonation in Real Time
To directly address these rising concerns around fake calls, we're taking on one of the most damaging tactics in a scammer's playbook: bank impersonation. Caller ID spoofing—where a scammer alters their incoming number to look like an official financial institution—has become one of the most deceptive tools for mobile fraud. In Brazil, bank impersonation scams surged by 195.7% over a 12-month period, according to the Brazilian Federation of Banks (FEBRABAN). According to FEBRABAN, “Bank impersonation via caller ID spoofing directly undermines customer trust in official bank communication, making real-time caller authentication vital to stopping social engineering before the customer even answers.”
To solve this, Android partnered with Banco do Brasil, Itaú Unibanco, and other leading banks to introduce verified financial calls:
- Real-time verification for bank calls: Working directly with official banking apps, Android checks incoming calls in real time to verify whether the bank actually initiated the call. If an incoming caller claiming to represent a bank fails this verification check, Android hangs up the call and immediately alerts you.
- 3+ million fake calls blocked: Since launching in June, Android has blocked more than 3 million spoofed calls from Banco do Brasil and Itaú Unibanco alone. This was achieved by automatically ending calls spoofing inbound-only numbers—official bank lines that are never used to contact customers directly.
The verified financial calls feature is already protecting customers of other global financial institutions, like Revolut, and we’ll continue bringing it to more partners. To learn more about how interested banks and financial apps can participate, please see our developer documentation.
As scams get harder to detect, staying safe shouldn't be up to you. Through built-in, intelligent defenses and partnerships across the ecosystem, we're focused on making every call and message safer with Google.
