T-Mobile intros new network tech to protect customers from phone scams

T-Mobile has began rolling out Scam ID and Scam Block to customers to safeguard them from scam calls. With Scam ID, customers are automatically alerted when an incoming call is likely a scam. 

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, says Neville Ray, chief technology officer for T-Mobile.

“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!” he adds. “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.” 

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 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, according to Ray.

If a customer doesn’t want to be bothered by scam calls, they can turn on Scam Block, and T-Mobile will terminate the call before it ever reaches the customer. The wireless network 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#). Click here for more info.