Google today announced fake call detection for the Phone by Google app. This protects you from what the company refers to as “the growing threat of impersonation scams”, which are now using AI deepfakes. Here’s how these scams work.
First, the scammers spoof the originating phone number of, say, one of your family members, “routing calls through internet-based software to make it appear as though the call is originating from a familiar contact”, Google says.
Then they use “easily accessible” AI deepfake technology to sound exactly like “an authority figure, family member, or employer”. According to Google, experts already say deepfakes have become so realistic that most people can no longer reliably distinguish them from real human voices.
And that’s where the fake call detection comes in. If both you and the person calling you are using the Phone by Google app, the app on their phone will communicate silently with the app on your phone to confirm that you are on a call with each other. This happens through end-to-end encrypted RCS, so it’s “completely private”.
If a scammer tries to impersonate your contact, that confirmation signal will be missing and your Phone by Google app will display a warning. This will help you avoid falling victim to deepfake impersonation and call spoofing in real-time. The feature will be on by default but can be disabled in the Phone by Google app settings.
Fake call detection is rolling out globally this month in the Phone by Google app on devices running Android 12 and later. The first devices to get it will be Google’s own Pixels. If your Android device uses a different default phone app, you can download and install Phone by Google from the Play Store and set it as your default phone app in order to take advantage of this protection.