Android owners must NOT ignore important new phone alert or it could lead to disaster for their bank accounts

GOOGLE has introduced a brand new alert on Android phones that every user must look out for.

Scammers steal an estimated £787billion from people across the globe a year and they are constantly evolving their tactics.

But tech giant Google has come up with a clever way to protect people from sneaky attacks.

Sophisticated AI built into your phone can detect key signs of an on-going scam in real-time.

It will pop-up as an alert on your handset urging you to end the call.

Your phone will also vibrate.

";Likely scam - suspicious activity detected for this call," it reads.

The tech looks for conversation patterns commonly linked to fraud.

"For example, if a caller claims to be from your bank and asks you to urgently transfer funds due to an alleged account breach, Scam Detection will process the call to determine whether the call is likely spam and, if so, can provide an audio and haptic alert and visual warning that the call may be a scam," Google says.

Scam Detection is switched off by default so you will need to switch it on to benefit from the added layer of protection.

The feature is processed on-device, so no chat audio or transcription is stored on your phone, nor is it sent to Google servers or anywhere else.

It is available on the latest Pixel 9 smartphones first, before rolling out to older Pixels.

Other Android brands will also get access to it soon.

Of course, the alert can only do so much and you should still be vigilant when taking calls.