According to sources, T-Mobile announced that scam call traffic more than doubled in 2021, with an average of 425 million calls each week. It also claimed that its Scam Shield service had stopped over 21 billion of such calls for T-Mobile subscribers through December 2021 (at a rate of over 700 calls per second).
Over half of the 21 billion calls were tied to phoney automobile warranty scams, with others impersonating Social Security workers, cellphone providers, car insurance firms, and parcel delivery organisations. Scammers favoured Texas, Florida, Arizona, and Georgia, with the Dallas/Fort Worth area code being the most targeted.
Last year, T-Mobile introduced its Scam Shield programme, which promised safety to all users, regardless of plan. When a call comes in, you can opt to screen it as “scam likely” or stop it entirely using a variety of tactics, as T-Mobile explains in its blog post.
Scam call statistics were also revealed by AT&T and Verizon, with AT&T claiming that its ActiveArmor service had rejected more than 16 billion suspicious calls since 2016. Meanwhile, Verizon announced that its Verizon Call Filter programme had saved 78 million of its customers from 13 billion unsolicited calls.
“Scam call attempts reached new highs in 2021, but with Scam Shield, we’re detecting or blocking an average of 1.8 billion calls per month — or 700 calls per second! — for our T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile clients. T-Consumer Mobile’s Group President, Jon Freier, stated, “We are the only carrier protecting every single consumer with the free scam-fighting capabilities in Scam Shield, regardless of their plan or device.” “We know scammers will continue to succeed as long as they are successful, so we’re doing everything we can to make their work as difficult as possible.” T-robust Mobile’s network is used by Scam Shield to help keep our customers protected in real time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Scam Shield was updated in 2021 with new features such as better Scam Reporting and eSIM compatibility in the app, as well as new unique network techniques to identify and block suspected scam attempts. Even if AT&T introduced a new solution in May 2021, customers must be on one of their most expensive plans to get Caller ID. T-Mobile now blocks or identifies 3.5 times more calls than AT&T’s solution and provides free Caller ID to all customers, regardless of plan. Verizon’s Call Filter protections do not currently include prepaid or business line users. The Un-carrier continues to strengthen Scam Shield and network tools as others catch up. T-Mobile was able to give today’s fresh insights into fraudster behaviours thanks to all of these new tools and data.