Last year, the police warned the public about a new scam technique called “silent calls” that make phone calls but no one speaks. Instead, they wait for the victim to speak before recording their voice, which is then cloned using artificial intelligence (AI). Family members will then receive an “emergency call” claiming that the victim has been kidnapped and demanding a ransom.
Google today announced a new feature on Android that is specifically designed to combat this scam technique. The feature uses RCS-based technology to ensure that calls received on Android devices are actually from real people.
When a phone call is made by a mother, for example, an end-to-end encryption (E2EE) confirmation is sent to the receiving device. The system detects that the phone number and device used by the mother match the confirmation signal sent using RCS. No warning is given if the identity is successfully verified.
If a scammer makes the same call impersonating your mother using a phone number and voice generated by AI, their device cannot send the required E2EE confirmation. Your device will then send a signal to confirm whether or not your mother's device is making a phone call to you. If it is not detected, a warning will be displayed on the device that the call is not from your mother.
This feature will be available to all Pixel devices with Android 12 and above that use the Phone by Google app for phone calls starting this month. Owners of other devices will only need to install Phone by Google today to use this feature.
