Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is working on a feature to detect bank scams that involve screen sharing.
- The feature will detect when you’re sharing your screen during a call and have a bank app open in the foreground.
- This would be a welcome layer of protection against a major scamming tactic.
Google Pixel phones already offer Scam Detection functionality in beta, but we’ve also seen scammers make use of screen sharing to fleece victims. However, it looks like Google is working on a solution for this particular type of fraud.
An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
We dug into the latest beta version of the Google Play Services app (25.18.31) and discovered that Google is working on a feature to detect bank scam calls. We also spotted an accompanying service in the app called “BankScamCallDetectionService.” You can check out the screenshots below for an under-the-hood peek at how the feature works.
This type of fraud involves a scammer calling a victim while posing as a bank’s customer support representative. The scammer then claims they need remote access to the user’s phone via screen-sharing software such as TeamViewer. From here, the fraudster urges victims to open and log into their bank app to solve an issue. Finally, the scammer transfers the victim’s cash out of their own account.
The code snippets above detail how Google will detect these scam calls. The scam detection feature will apparently kick in when someone calls you but they’re not in your contacts list. The feature will then detect whether a banking app is in the foreground during this phone call and whether or not screen sharing (“media projection”) is active. When these conditions are met, Google will warn you that this could be a scam. The company would presumably let you take action, too, like ending the call or marking the number as coming from a scammer.
Unlike the Scam Detection feature for Pixel phones, it doesn’t seem like Google needs to listen in on the call to issue a warning. The fact that a banking app is open during a phone call with a new number while screen sharing is enabled is enough to generate an alert.
There are hundreds of banking apps out there, but we spotted a flag (“BankScamWarningFeature__monitored_banking_app_packages”) that suggests Google will maintain a list of banking apps to be monitored. It stands to reason that the company will continuously update this list to support more banking apps.
In any event, we’re guessing that this feature will be available to everyone with Google Play Services. So you might not need Android 16 to get this welcome layer of protection.
