iOS 27 introduces a new security feature called Impersonation Risk Detection, designed to help protect users against scams. Every day, people are tricked into sharing sensitive information such as bank details or financial data with bad actors, often through text messages, emails, or phone calls. While iOS already offers call and message screening, those tools cannot stop a scam if the user chooses to act on it.
Impersonation Risk Detection targets active social engineering scams, in which an attacker poses as a bank, government agency, or someone the user trusts to pressure them into making a payment or changing account details. Traditional measures like two-factor authentication often fail here because the user is taking the action themselves, even though they have been tricked. The feature analyzes information about the device and Apple Account to detect signs of an active scam, then returns a risk level to the app. The app receives only that level, not the underlying data, and decides what to do next, such as requesting identity verification, adding a delay, or showing a warning.
The feature is off by default. To turn it on, users can go to Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Impersonation Risk Detection, and toggle on "Share with App Developers." It is only available in supported apps, and Apple has not yet published a list of those apps.
Risk levels are Unknown, meaning no suspicious activity was detected; Medium, meaning some signs were detected; and High, meaning significant signs were detected.
Source: 9to5Mac · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing