Scams involving fake banks, government agencies, delivery services, and even people users know have become increasingly common in recent years. Apple aims to address this with a new security feature in iOS 27. The latest update for iPhone brings Impersonation Risk Detection. The Cupertino-based tech giant says it can identify signs that a user may be in the middle of an active scam, particularly when they are about to make a payment or change sensitive account information, and alert them.
Apple’s Impersonation Risk Detection Feature
The feature’s name itself is self-explanatory. On a support page, Apple said that Impersonation Risk Detection can protect users from active social engineering scams, where a scammer impersonates a bank, government agency, or another trusted person and convinces the victim to take an action. The feature analyses information about the iPhone or iPad and the user’s Apple Account to detect signs of suspicious activity.
When a supported app requests an assessment during an action that could be particularly risky, the system generates a risk level that the app can use to determine what happens next.
Apple says there are three levels of risk — Unknown, Medium, or High. Unknown means that no evidence of suspicious activity was detected, although Apple notes that this does not confirm that an action is safe. Medium indicates that some signs of suspicious activity were detected. High, on the other hand, means that significant signs of suspicious activity were detected.
As per the company, the app does not receive the information used to generate the assessment. Instead, it only receives the resulting risk level. The app can then decide how to respond. It can be triggered when users perform actions such as making a payment or changing critical security information, including an account password.
How to turn on Impersonation Risk Detection
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap Privacy & Security.
- Scroll down and select Impersonation Risk Detection.
- Turn on the Share with App Developers option.
- If prompted, sign in to the App Store with your Apple Account.
Users can also control access on an app-by-app basis. The company, however, warns that since the feature depends on supported apps and its risk assessment does not guarantee that an action is safe, it is not designed to replace other security measures or user caution.
