Here's How To Enable iOS 27's Best New Security Feature On Your iPhone

iOS 27, which started rolling out in September and comes preloaded on the new iPhone 18 Pro lineup, packs a bunch of big and small changes. While some of these changes, like the new Siri AI, are more front and center, there are several not-so-visible small tweaks that can enhance your iPhone's usability. One such new security-related feature is your iPhone's ability to protect you from scammers. Referred to as 'Impersonation Risk Detection', the feature is designed to counter social engineering scams, which are harder to detect for unsuspecting users, particularly those who aren't very savvy with technology. This can come in pretty handy and help you safeguard yourself when you're unable to detect a scammer.

The feature is turned off by default, but you can enable it with just a few taps. To turn on 'Impersonation Risk Detection' on your iOS 27-running iPhone, open the Settings app and navigate to Privacy & Security > Impersonation Risk Detection. Then all you have to do is enable the 'Share with App Developers' option. This will enable the feature. Remember, it may take up to 24 hours for the feature to start working properly. But what exactly is 'Impersonation Risk Detection' going to accomplish, and how does it stop you from getting scammed?

As part of social engineering scams, a malicious party impersonates someone known to you, a bank employee, or a government official to dupe you into transferring them money, giving them access to your personal account, and more. Scammers often present the situation as urgent, and panicked users under pressure often don't think things through, so they get duped.

Apple is helping with this through the 'Impersonation Risk Detection' feature. Unlike other scam-detection measures, the feature actually works with participating apps, such as a banking app, which you allow to receive a risk level based on Apple's on-device risk assessment. Based on the risk level, the app can add measures to ensure you aren't actively being scammed and stop you from getting defrauded. These measures will depend on the app, but can include things like additional authentication measures, a delay in making large payments, or a warning that you might be becoming a victim of fraud.

Your iPhone only passes on a risk level to the app, and not the details that have led to the risk assessment, so your privacy remains safe. There are three risk levels: unknown when your iPhone doesn't detect any risk, medium when it notices some signs of suspicious activity, and high when it sees significant signs of risky and suspicious activity on your iPhone. As any false detections can likely create unnecessary friction for you in using an app's features, 'Impersonation Risk Detection' is turned off by default. But if you want, you can enable it using the steps outlined earlier.