Synaptrex Technologies has released ScamNet: Anti-Scam Suite, a consumer security application designed to detect and block various scams across phone calls, text messages, and websites. The application is available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with specific features varying by platform. While call protection is exclusive to iPhone, tools like Visual Intelligence are supported on both iPhone and iPad.
The ScamNet application is free, with an optional ScamNet+ subscription offering additional features. Initial setup involves enabling individual "shields" for Phone, Messages, Safari, and general device security. A dashboard provides an overview of these shields' status and offers access to scam checking and reporting functionalities.
On iOS, the Phone shield integrates with the operating system's Call Blocking Identification feature. This component includes blocking for spam and robocalls, scam identification, an offline directory for local processing of incoming numbers, and a mechanism for reporting suspicious callers. The Messages protection employs an offline detection engine to filter unknown senders, apply local AI classification for spam and phishing identification, inspect links within messages, and leverage sender reputation to flag numbers associated with known scams.
For web browsing, the Safari extension conducts dynamic threat analysis, blocking sites identified as malicious and issuing warnings about suspicious domains. During testing, this extension displayed its assessment directly within Safari and provided a pathway to more detailed information within the ScamNet app. A Device Shield component checks for an enabled passcode, current operating system, device integrity, and active screen recording or mirroring.
ScamNet's "Check / Report" tool allows users to submit various types of content for analysis, including phone numbers, websites, cryptocurrency wallet addresses, text, images, and audio recordings. Users can also select content directly from their Photos or submit recently copied items. In a test scenario, the tool successfully extracted a Croatian phone number from a screenshot of a suspicious Viber message impersonating a support team and requesting a verification code, offering an option to report it. However, its "Adaptive Expert" did not identify a scam call-to-action in the submitted content. Broader AI analysis for images and text is available through the ScamNet+ subscription.
Additional features of ScamNet include breach notifications, scheduled security checks, regular threat-definition updates, Shortcuts integration, widgets, iCloud synchronization, and scam-related news. The application consolidates several anti-scam controls into a single interface, making their status easily monitorable. Its integration with iOS call identification, message filtering, Safari, and on-device processing covers common scam vectors, assisting users in assessing suspicious content. However, human judgment remains crucial in determining the trustworthiness of calls, messages, or websites.
