Google is increasing the power of artificial intelligence in India's fight against digital fraud with the introduction of fraud detection on Pixel 9 devices and new screen sharing alerts for financial apps.
Digital fraud continues to rise in India as more people go online for the first time and increasingly use smartphones to pay, make purchases and access government services. Digital transaction fraud has been cleared more than half of all reported bank frauds According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in 2024 – 13,516 cases resulting in losses of ₹5.2 billion (approximately $58.61 million). Internet fraud caused an estimated £70 billion (about $789 million) losses in the first five months of 2025, the Ministry of Interior reported. Many incidents likely go unreported because victims are unsure how to file a complaint or want to avoid additional scrutiny.
Google on Thursday announced an extension of real-time fraud detection that uses Gemini Nano to analyze calls on the device and flag potential fraud without recording audio or sending data to Google servers. The feature is disabled by default and only applies to calls from unknown numbers, and a tone plays during the call to notify participants. It debuted in the US in March as a beta for English-speaking Pixel 9 users.
Google confirmed to TechCrunch that on-device fraud detection will initially only work on Pixel 9 and newer models in India and will be limited to English-speaking users, with the warning only available in English. This limits its reach in the market where Android operates almost 96% of smartphonesaccording to Statcounter, but Pixel devices owned less than 1% of the shares in 2024. Language limitations are also noticeable in a country where most users primarily use languages other than English – an audience that Google and other companies such as Amazon have recognized by adding support for Indian languages to their services in recent years.
The tech giant said it is also working to detect fraud on non-Pixel Android phones, but did not provide a timeline.
Google also announced a pilot in India involving financial apps Navi, Paytm and Google Pay, aimed at curbing screen-sharing scams, in which fraudsters trick victims into sharing their screens to obtain one-time passwords, PINs and other credentials while connected. The feature was first announced at Google I/O in May and was initially tested in the UK
Users of devices running Android 11 or later will be able to access alerts, which include the option to end a call with one tap and stop screen sharing. Google confirmed to TechCrunch that it plans to add more app partners and the feature will display alerts in Indian languages as well, but did not provide details.
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For several months, Google has also been using Play Protect to curb predatory lending apps in India by blocking sideloading of third-party apps that request sensitive permissions often used for fraud. The company said the service blocked more than 115 million such installation attempts this year. Meanwhile, according to the company, Google Pay displays over a million warnings every week for transactions flagged as potentially fraudulent.
Google is also running a digital fraud awareness campaign called DigiKavach, which it says has reached more than 250 million people. The company has collaborated with the Reserve Bank of India to publish a public list of authorized digital lending apps and their associated non-banking financial companies to help curb malicious actors.
Earlier this year, Google launched the Security Charter in India to expand its efforts to detect AI-based fraud and ensure security, part of a broader plan to deploy more AI tools in the country to combat the growing number of frauds.
However, Google still faces major gaps in mitigating digital fraud in India. The company – like Apple – was questioned allowing fake and misleading applications appear in the app store despite screening processes designed to block fake submissions.
In recent years Police AND security researchers flagged investment and lending apps used in fraud, which remained available on the Play Store until intervention. These cases highlight the challenges Google faces in overseeing an ecosystem that dominates the country's smartphone market.
