The screen turns red in the middle of the call. A short message appears: “This caller may be trying to scam you. Banks never ask for codes over the phone.” That is what millions of smartphone users in the country will start to see this month, after a major phone maker began rolling out a software update with built-in scam detection.
The feature listens for warning signs during calls and checks incoming messages, all on the device itself. If a caller asks for a one-time code, pushes the user to install a remote access app or demands an urgent bank transfer, the phone shows a full-screen alert and offers to end the call. Suspicious links in text messages are blurred until the user confirms they want to open them.
The scale of the problem
The timing is no accident. Figures from the country’s banking association, shared exclusively with News., show that consumers lost 41 million euros to scams last year, almost double the amount two years earlier. Nearly two in three cases began with a phone call or a text message, and the average loss per victim was just over 5,200 euros.
The most common tricks were fake bank security calls, messages about undelivered parcels and “family emergency” calls in which scammers pretend to be a relative in trouble. People over 65 made up a quarter of victims but lost almost half of all the money.
Scammers do not hack phones. They hack people, usually in the first three minutes of a call. A warning at that exact moment is worth more than any campaign we run.
Amara Okoye, head of fraud prevention at a Riverton bank
How it works, and what it does not do
According to a technical briefing given to journalists, the detection model runs entirely on the phone’s own chip. Audio is not recorded or sent to the company’s servers, and the feature can be switched off in the settings.
Comments 2
Nice idea, but I would like to know the false alarm rate before I rely on it.
Set this up on my mother’s phone last night. The trusted contact option alone is worth it.