Google launches online fraud protection pilot for Android phones in India

As per the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), in the first four months of 2024 alone, Indians reportedly lost over Rs 1,750 crore to cyber-criminals.

To thwart fraud online, Google on Thursday (October 3) launched Google Play Protect pilot for Android phones in India.

In recent months, fraudsters have been using messenger apps and social media platforms to spread malware-laced apps on the Android ecosystem.

Promising high returns, they lure naive Android phone users to install fake apps to store cryptocurrency and do stock market trading. Once the user invests a huge amount of money, they deactivate the app and vanish into thin air.

As threat actors use mule accounts, it is very difficult for investigative agencies to trace and return the stolen money to the victims.

Called Google Play Protect, it promises to safeguard Android phone owners from fake apps. Even if the user unintentionally sideloads the app, it warns them to be wary of such apps. And, if it is on the blacklist, Google will ask the owner to remove it from the phone.

Google Play Protect feature in action.

"This enhanced fraud protection will analyze and automatically block the installation of apps that may use sensitive permissions frequently abused for financial fraud. It will inspect the permissions the app declared in real-time and specifically look for permission requests that are frequently abused by fraudsters to intercept one-time passwords via SMS or notifications, as well as spy on screen content (they are RECEIVE_SMS, READ_SMS, BIND_Notifications, and Accessibility)," said Eugene Liderman, Director, Mobile Security Strategy, Google.

The pilot project, which is already live in Singapore, has already shown promising results, blocking nearly 900,000 high-risk installations on Android phones.

In related development, Google has introduced support for Hindi language in Gemini Live assistant.

It also plans to expand Google Live assistant to support eight more Indian languages including Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati, Malayalam, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, and Urdu in the coming weeks.

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