Google is bringing more AI muscle to India’s fight against digital fraud, rolling out on-device scam detection for Pixel 9 devices and new screen-sharing alerts for financial apps.
Google confirmed to TechCrunch that its on-device scam detection will initially work only on Pixel 9 and later models in India and will be limited to English-speaking users, with its warning also English only. That restricts its reach in a market where Android accounts fornearly 96% of smartphones, per Statcounter, but Pixel devicesheld less than 1% sharein 2024. The language limitation is also notable in a country where most users primarily rely on non-English languages — an audience thatGoogleand others likeAmazonhave acknowledged by adding support for Indian languages across their services in recent years.
The tech giant did say it was working to bring scam detection to non-Pixel Android phones, as well, without offering a timeline.
Google also announced a pilot in India with financial apps Navi, Paytm, and Google Pay aimed at limiting screen-sharing scams, in which fraudsters persuade victims to share their screens to obtain one-time passwords, PINs, and other credentials during a call. The feature wasfirst announced at Google I/Oin May and initially tested in the U.K.
Users with devices running Android 11 or later will be able to access the alerts, which include a one-tap option to end the call and stop screen sharing. Google confirmed to TechCrunch that it plans to add more app partners and the feature will display alerts in Indian languages as well but did not provide details.
For several months, Google has also beenusing its Play Protect serviceto restrict predatory loan apps in India by blocking the sideloading of third-party apps that request sensitive permissions often exploited for fraud. The company said the service blocked more than 115 million such installation attempts this year. Google Pay, meanwhile, surfaces more than a million warnings each week for transactions flagged as potentially fraudulent, according to the company.
Google is also running its DigiKavach awareness campaign on digital fraud, which it said has reached more than 250 million people. The company has worked with the Reserve Bank of India to publish a public list of authorized digital lending apps and their associated non-banking financial companies to help limit malicious actors.
Earlier this year, Googlelaunched a Safety Charterin India to expand its AI-driven fraud detection and security efforts, part of a broader plan to deploy more AI tools in the country to address rising fraud.
Yet Google still faces significant gaps in curbing digital fraud in India. The company — like Apple — has been questioned forallowing fake and misleading appsto appear on its app store despite review processes meant to block fraudulent submissions.
In recent years,policeandsecurity researchershave flagged investment and loan apps used in scams that remained available on the Play Store until intervention. These cases underscore the challenges Google faces in policing an ecosystem that dominates the country’s smartphone market.
Source: Techcrunch
