T-Mobile fights scammers with call warnings

T-Mobile's Scam ID service will identify possible scam phone calls. (Source: T-Mobile)

Two new programs, Scam ID and Scam Block, will help T-Mobile customers avoid scam phone calls by identifying known scam numbers and warning users. Clients can also opt in to Scam Block, which outright blocks known scammers.

by Sam Medley, 2017/03/24

Imagine this: you’re sitting down to dinner after a long day when your phone starts ringing. Caller ID displays a number you don’t know, so you decide to answer it and see who might be calling. On the other line, you hear a bad impression of your uncle telling you that he’s trapped in Jamaica and needs you to wire some money to his bank account so he can buy food and a plane ticket back home. Realizing it’s a scam, you hang up, annoyed at having your evening interrupted. Not to worry; if you’re a T-Mobile customer, you will soon be able to ignore these kinds of calls before you even answer your phone.

T-Mobile is in the process of rolling out a system that will warn customers when a known scam number is calling them. If your phone identifies the number as a possible scammer, the caller ID will show a message saying that the call is most likely a scam. T-Mobile is calling the program “Scam ID.” Customers can also subscribe to a Do Not Call (DNC) list to block these numbers outright in a program dubbed “Scam Block.” T-Mobile has been building a “global database of tens of thousands of known scammer numbers” and will strive to keep the database current. They’ll do this by analyzing call patterns on their network with “behavioral heuristics and intelligent scam pattern detection,” allowing them to update their database in near-real-time.

T-Mobile is offering this service for free to its subscribers. T-Mobile ONE customers will automatically receive scam warning messages on April 5th while postpaid clients will need to opt into the program. To enable Scam ID, they’ll need to dial #ONI# (#664#). Both ONE and postpaid customers will need to opt into Scam Block, which they can do by dialing #ONB# (#662#).

This move is part of “an industry-wide effort to fight robocalling, led by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai.” The FCC has recently made strides to combat scam phone calls and telemarketing robocalling by equipping the major carriers themselves with the toolkits they need to build services like Scam ID and Scam Block. AT&T is also planning to develop a similar program later this year.

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Press Release

Built on powerful new technology in T-Mobile’s network, Scam ID and Scam Block begin rolling out to customers today – for FREE

Bellevue, Washington — March 24, 2017 —T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) began rolling out Scam ID and Scam Block to customers today to safeguard them from scam calls, which cost Americans millions of dollars every year. With Scam ID, customers are automatically alerted when an incoming call is likely a scam. And, when customers enable Scam Block, T-Mobile will stop scam calls before they ever reach them. These free new customer protection features are powered by patent-pending T-Mobile technology built right into the Un-carrier’s advanced network – which also means scam blocking works on every single phone on T-Mobile’s network.

Phone scams come in all shapes and sizes, from the IRS scam to Medicare cons to “free” travel to credit card scams and countless others. These phone scams are run by fraudsters who are often armed with robocalling technology enabling them to target vast numbers of people and make tens of thousands of calls a minute with the sole purpose of cheating people and separating them from their money.

“Every year, three out of four people in the US get at least one scam call—and fraudsters cheat consumers out of more than half a billion dollars per year! It’s insane – so we had to do something to protect our customers!” said Neville Ray, Chief Technology Officer for T-Mobile. “So the T-Mobile team designed a brilliant set of patent-pending technologies — then built them directly into our network, so there’s nothing customers have to do. No hoops to jump through, no app to download. Like most T-Mobile technologies, it just works.”

Here’s how it all works: every time someone calls a T-Mobile customer, as soon as that call reaches the T-Mobile network, patent-pending technology analyzes it – in milliseconds – against an advanced global database of tens of thousands of known scammer numbers. The database is kept up-to-date in near real-time by analyzing every call that comes into the network with behavioral heuristics and intelligent scam pattern detection. When a match is found, the T-Mobile network tags the incoming call and warns the customer that it’s likely from a scammer. Because of the way T-Mobile’s network manages voice traffic, the Un-carrier is capable of analyzing every call to identify and block scammers.
If a customer prefers never to be bothered by scam calls, they can simply turn on Scam Block, and T-Mobile will terminate the call before it ever reaches the customer – stopping the scammers cold. The customer is always in control and always has the power to decline or block scam calls.

T-Mobile is enabling Scam ID and Scam Block on a rolling basis beginning with T-Mobile ONE customers. New T-Mobile ONE customers will automatically get Scam ID beginning April 5. T-Mobile postpaid customers can also enable Scam ID for themselves beginning April 5 by dialing #ONI# (#664#) and pressing the call button in their phone’s dialer. To turn on Scam Block, customers can dial #ONB# (#662#) or, to turn it off, dial #OFB# (#632#). To check whether Scam Block is on or off, customers can dial #STS# (#787#).

T-Mobile is part of an industry-wide effort to fight robocalling, led by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai. Scam ID and Scam Block stop robocalls for T-Mobile customers in their most insidious form - phone scams.

To learn more, visit www.t-mobile.com/callprotection.