Security News > 2021 > December > T-Mobile says it blocked 21 billion scam calls this year
T-Mobile says it blocked 21 billion scam, spam, and unwanted robocalls this year through its free Scam Shield robocall and scam protection service, amounting to an average of 1.8 billion scam calls identified or blocked every month.
Last year, when it announced the Scam Shield service, T-Mobile said it could detect or block approximately 12 billion scam calls in 2019 and that around 30 million Americans fell victim to a phone scam within 12 months.
"T-Mobile Scam Shield has identified or blocked over 21 BILLION calls for T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile customers through early December 2021," the company revealed today in its 2021 Scam and Robocall Report.
"The lowest measured month for scam traffic was January 2021, identifying 1.1 billion calls as Scam Likely. By November, volume had increased exponentially, and T-Mobile identified double the January traffic at 2.5 billion calls as Scam Likely."
More than half of these 21 billion calls were related to fake vehicle warranty scams, with other top scam attempts pretending to be with the Social Security office, the wireless provider, car insurance company, or package delivery.
"Attempted scam calls hit record highs in 2021, but with Scam Shield we are identifying or blocking an average 1.8 billion calls each month - or 700 calls per second! - for our T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile customers," said Jon Freier, the President of T-Mobile's Consumer Group.