GoKawiilJoe Maring / Android Authority
TL;DR Verified Calls in the Google Phone app can help alert you of potential scams, like when someone’s impersonating your bank.
A new Verified caller feature could deliver similar protections, but even when using other phone apps.
Verified calls would also help protect against spoofed calls from DNO, or do-not-originate numbers.
Criminals have been using the telephone to scam people since its infancy, and the arrival of smartphones only raised the stakes. While there’s the potential there for us to be a lot more vulnerable, tech also affords companies like Google new ways to fight back against scammers. We just saw Google bring some new in-call protections for financial apps to the US late last year, and now we’re checking out what might be coming up next.
One of the most powerful tools in a scammer’s arsenal is the ability to spoof the number they’re calling from, making it look like they’re someone legitimate. And despite the rise of systems like STIR/SHAKEN to resist spoofing (originally deployed as a response to robocallers), people are still being tricked.
An in-development “Verified caller” system in Android could help make that sort of deception even more difficult. Unlike the existing Verified Calls system, which was a feature of the Google Phone app, this would be deployed to Android at the system level through Play Services — hopefully encouraging wider use.
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One of the key components of this new tool may be support for detecting scams incorporating DNO, or do-not-originate numbers. These tend to be publicly listed numbers of corporations or governmental entities — the number you might call if you were trying to reach one of these organizations. Critically, they’re not used for placing calls to customers — hence the DNO name. In the past, scammers might have tried to spoof their number as one of these in order to make the call seem like it was on the up-and-up.
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