Google has a solution for those ‘unpaid toll’ text scams
CNN
The next time you’re about to tap a text message to resolve an unpaid toll balance, your Android phone may warn you to think twice.
The next time you’re about to tap a text message to resolve an unpaid toll balance, your Android phone may warn you to think twice. Google is updating its scam text detection technology to spot hoaxes like these, which are among the most common types of text-related schemes according to the Federal Trade Commission. The new scam detection will come as an update to Google Messages, the messaging app installed on most Android phones by default. Google Messages already monitors texts for other types of popular ploys like fake job offers and bogus package theft alerts. It will start rolling out on Tuesday and is just one of several Android updates Google announced ahead of its developers’ conference next week – along with cosmetic software changes and the expansion of its Gemini AI helper to Android-powered smartwatches and cars. Text scams related to phony unpaid tolls have been on the rise. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received roughly 60,000 complaints related to toll scams last year, and fake unpaid toll texts nearly quadrupled between January and late February according security software maker McAfee. Consumers lost $470 million to text scams in 2024, according to the FTC. “We’ve just been hearing from users like constantly that this is a problem,” Sameer Samat, Google’s Android ecosystem president, said in a CNN interview.
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