Internet scams are evolving. While fake tech support and phishing emails have existed for a long time, scammers are now starting to take advantage of AI. If scammers are getting smarter, so should your browser, right? I mean, that’s where you usually get scammed. Ad blockers usually help prevent scamwares from reaching you. But now that browsers like Chrome are cracking down on ad blockers, there’s not really a solid alternative left. And that’s what Google and Microsoft are trying to fix.
Chrome’s Scam Detection
As spotted by user @Leopeva64 on X, there’s a new flag in the browser’s canary build that suggests Chrome will use AI to detect scams. While we don’t have an official statement from Google yet, the flag is titled “Client Side Detection Brand and Intent for Scam Detection.”
It uses an on-device large language model (LLM) to analyse web pages for suspicious activities. While we don’t have a lot of details about how it works, we have some speculations. It likely scans webpages for signs of fraud, such as misrepresented brands or phishing tactics like fake urgency and notifies you.
Edge’s Scareware Blocker
Microsoft has already announced a similar feature for Edge browser in their Ignite 2024 event. The scareware blocker uses machine learning to identify scams and displays a warning to alert users. If the user identifies the website as safe, they can continue to browse.
The announcement mainly underscored the importance of such a feature for businesses and enterprises. “For organizations, using scareware blocker helps prevent attacks that could attempt to gain remote access. This helps to protect your network and your employees.” While there was no specific date mentioned for the release of this feature, it is expected to be in public preview in the coming months.
Leveraging AI against such scams is a genius way of handling things. On-device LLM and machine learning are definitely the way to go here, as you don’t want your private browsing data to go on the web. But we are yet to see how these features work in real life.
We have already seen AI features making their way to browsers, and I’m not talking about AI chatbots. There’s surely more to come, and I am excited to see how it all turns out.