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27 May 2025 – The Keyword
Our latest fraud and scams advisory
Built-in security keeps you safer from scams and fraud
According to the Global Anti-Scams Alliance, nearly one in four people worldwide have been affected by online scams and fraud. Bad actors are misusing technology to build scams around jobs, investments, travel and more, relying on misleading content and malware to make their crimes more effective. Google is committed to helping you stay safer every day, with AI-powered security features built in at the product level.
AI-powered scam detection
Google uses AI to identify fraudulent content at scale. Machine learning uncovers patterns that indicate potential scams, and LLMs can quickly recognise new trends that allow us to distinguish what is legitimate from what is harmful. These innovations make it possible to filter out threats and help keep you safer as you go about your life online, from opening emails and making purchases to browsing the web and storing photos.
Your daily defence against dangerous schemes
Discover the product features engineered to keep you and your personal information safer from scams, spam, malware, fraud, theft and more.
Android
Android protects you from spammers, shady sites and theft
Android automatically filters out spam and phishing messages, and screens scam calls. Proactive protections warn you before you visit an identified dangerous site. All apps on your device are scanned daily for continued security. And theft protection keeps your data safe before, during and after theft attempts.
Pixel
Scam Detection in messages and calls
Scams are commonly initiated through phone calls and text messages. These often appear harmless at first, but can evolve into dangerous situations. Scam Detection uses powerful on-device AI to help detect conversational patterns commonly used by scammers, in real time. Get notified during calls and text messaging if the person on the other end is a potential scammer.
Our approach to battling scams and fraud
In order to provide access to trustworthy information and content, we develop policies and protections that help us prevent, detect and respond to harmful and illegal content. Learn more about our three-pillar approach in our Tackling scams and fraud together white paper.
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Learn moreAnti-scam policies on Google Ads
Google Ads has developed – and regularly updates – a range of policies and safety features tailored to the ads ecosystem, such as its policy against public-figure impersonation or its limited ads serving. The latter requires advertisers to go through a 'getting to know you' period before earning the privilege of advertising in abuse-prone areas. These dedicated policies have been key to dramatically reducing the volume of scammy ads.
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Learn moreThe Ads Transparency Center
Launched in 2023, this searchable tool lets users look up any advertiser on Google's platforms to see basic company information and view all their current ads. It's helpful for anyone who wants to research the companies behind ads, and also for distinguishing legitimate businesses from potential scammers. The Ads Transparency Center works alongside our advertiser verification programmes to give users more control over and insight into who's advertising to them.
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Learn moreProviding context on Search
Our About this image feature helps users verify photos that they find online by showing metadata about when and where the image appeared on the web. Available through 'Circle to Search' on Android phones, the feature can reveal if an image was AI generated by detecting watermarks and other creator-added information. This tool is part of our effort to help people understand the source and history of the visual content that they encounter in Search results.
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Learn moreDisclosure and labelling on YouTube
YouTube requires creators to label videos that contain realistic AI-generated or significantly altered content. Most videos get a disclosure in the description, but content that covers more sensitive topics like health, news or politics receives a more prominent warning directly on the video. YouTube also requires political advertisers to clearly disclose when their ads use AI-generated content, helping viewers understand what they're watching while they seek to make informed decisions.
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Learn moreAndroid's always-on protections
Android's top priority is the safety of its users. We use industry-leading security practices and work closely with developers and device implementers across the entire ecosystem to ensure that users are protected as soon as they turn on their device. Android incorporates multiple layers of protections across its mobile operating system to detect and prevent scams, such as Phone by Google, which screens for potential spam and scam calls.
Partnerships in tackling fraud
Tackling fraud and scams remains a complex and ongoing challenge that necessitates a cross-industry response and collaboration with stakeholder groups. Google is proud to participate and share our knowledge and expertise in these collective efforts towards strengthening technological solutions and protecting users.
Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA)
GASA is a global nonprofit coalition with a broad network of over 100 members and close relationships with law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and Europol, and industry sectors such as banks and major tech companies. Google joined GASA in March 2024 as a Foundation Member.
Global Signal Exchange (GSE)
In October 2024, Google entered into a partnership with GASA and DNS Research Federation to launch the Global Signal Exchange. The GSE is a global clearing house for online scams and fraudulent bad-actor signals, with Google becoming its first Foundation Member. The collaboration brings together GASA's unparalleled global network of stakeholders; DNS Research Federation's data platform, which already stores over 200 million signals; and Google's deep expertise in fighting scams and fraud. Thanks to the GSE, we are able to speed up detection and raise the alarm about new scamming campaigns across platforms and sectors, and across borders.
Risk and Incident Sharing and Coordination (RISC)
RISC was launched initially as a Google framework to share security events with business partners anytime that Google detects a major change in a user account’s status. For example, if a user's Google Account were hijacked by a bad actor, Google can send a signal to connected apps and platforms, allowing them to take appropriate actions or put additional protections in place.
SG Bamboo Builders
Through Google.org, our philanthropic arm, we have been supporting initiatives like Bamboo Builders, a Singapore-based social enterprise, since 2024, with a $2 million grant to launch SG ScamWISE, an initiative that aims to protect 100,000 underserved young and elderly people against scams and online threats by 2026, including AI-based threats (e.g. deepfakes), through research, policy roundtables, curriculum development, upskilling training and a youth ambassadorship programme.
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