Android phone users in Singapore will soon be able to block messages from unknown international numbers and prevent the disabling of Google’s app protections, thanks to the latest anti-scam measures rolled out with the country’s authorities.
In a pilot trial, Google will allow Android users to block SMS and RCS messages on its Messages app, reducing their exposure to scams that originate through such messages.
According to Singapore police, SMS scams accounted for more than 700 cases in the country in the first half of this year. Notably, however, scammers have also used phone calls, social media and other messaging platforms to get to victims.
To further protect users, Google is enhancing its Google Play Protect system by preventing it from being disabled during active audio or video calls.
This is to ward off scammers, who have often tricked victims into disabling the protection during calls to bypass security and install malicious apps. The safeguard aims to defend against this common scam tactic.
Both new enhancements will be rolled out to Android devices in Singapore in the next few months, announced Google today. It had worked with Singapore police as well as the Infocomm Media Development Authority for the updates.
Earlier in February, the technology giant partnered the country’s Cyber Security Agency to boost fraud protection on Android phones, in a first such trial globally.
So far, that effort has blocked 1.3 million high-risk app installation attempts from Web browsers, messaging apps or file managers, according to Google.
Such efforts will be needed to ward off increasingly sophisticated mobile phone scams and cyberattacks. Scam victims in Singapore lost S$651.8 million in 2023. In the first six months this year, a record S$385.6 million were lost.
Last year, OCBC Bank said its banking app’s anti-malware feature had prevented scammers from making away with more than S$2 million in savings from more than 30 customers’ accounts in just one month.
The bank had rolled out a feature to block out “high-risk” apps that irked many users because it ended up with many false positives and arrived without warning.
A high-profile phishing scam in late 2021 resulted in S$13.7 million being lost by close to 800 OCBC customers. The bank later reimbursed the victims as a one-off “goodwill gesture”.
