T-Mobile to roll out network-level scam call protection features: Scam ID and Scam Block

Spam in your inbox and via SMS is one thing, but fairly easy to ignore. Spam phone calls, on the other hand, are not only annoying, but are frequently used to try to scam people out of money. T-Mobile is about to roll out a solution.

As part of an upgrade to its network, the carrier is introducing Scam ID and Scam Block which will be used to alert customer to potential scam calls, and to block known malicious callers. As these features are being rolled out on a network level, it should be available to all T-Mobile customers starting next month.

Both Scam ID and Scam Block will be available from April 5, but only Scam ID will be enabled (for pay monthly customers, at least) by default. The carrier will check incoming calls against a constantly-updated database of scammers' number; "behavioral heuristics and intelligent scam pattern detection" will be used to keep this database up to date with the latest numbers. When a call comes from such a number, T-Mobile will warn that it is probably a scam.

Scam Block takes things to the next level, automatically blocking calls that comes from numbers that appear in the database of known scammers. As this requires an element of trust from customers who will want assurances that this will not mean missing out on legitimate, misidentified calls, Scam Block is opt-in.

You can use the following dialler code from April 5 to check the status of, enable, and disable the two features:

• Enable Scam ID: #ONI# (#664#)
• Enable Scam Block: #ONB# (#662#)
• Disable Scam Block: #OFB# (#632#)
• Check Scam Block status: #STS# (#787#)

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