Scams are increasingly popular. From messages about a scheduled interview for a job you never even applied for to free money you have been given for just no reason, fraudsters are becoming more creative. Sometimes, these messages aren’t clear as outright scams, and even seem like legitimate communications. Finding out if a suspicious message or online alert is fraudulent is becoming more difficult. To help tackle this issue, Google is expanding the functionality of one of its most popular Android features, Circle to Search, turning it into a scam detector for your text messages. This development is included in the recently announced Android 16 QPR2 update.
Source: Google
Google’s Circle to Search was designed to let users quickly search for items by circling them on the screen. Now, detecting potential text scams is also possible. This improvement blends the core AI capabilities of Google Search directly into your messaging interface, creating a defence shield against phishing and fraud attempts.
Circle to Search now has AI-powered fraud detection
Source: Google
When you receive suspicious texts, emails, or social media messages that ring alarm bells, you can verify the message with Circle to Search by drawing a loop around the text block. It carries out a search that consults information from across the web. The results will be seen in an AI Overview at the top of the screen. The summary will include online data, such as reports of similar scams, known fraudulent tactics, or warnings from official sources, to determine whether the message is malicious.
Source: Google
When a message is flagged as a likely scam by the AI Overview, it issues a warning and provides immediate guidance by suggesting the best next steps to take. Such actions include blocking the number, reporting the incident, or verifying the request through official channels, like directly logging into a bank’s website instead of clicking a link in the message.
Source: Google
With this new Google feature, Android users now have an additional security layer against fraud. Integrating a real-time scam detector directly to smartphones increases digital security, but of course, it won’t stop scams completely as all AI systems are prone to mistakes.
