T-Mobile on Thursday launched its new “Caller Verified” features, which is designed to offer it’s users better protection from spammers and scammers, whose favorite trick lately is to spoof legitimate phone numbers in attempt to spoof consumers.
Caller Verified is T-Mobile’s implementation of the STIR and SHAKEN standards. These standards combat illegal caller ID spoofing, which occurs when scammers temporarily hijack a phone number to match the area code and 3-digit prefix of the person they are targeting, making the incoming call look familiar. T-Mobile was first in the industry to announce readiness for STIR/SHAKEN in November 2018, and today, the Un-carrier became the first in the industry to launch caller verification using the STIR/SHAKEN standards. Once other wireless providers implement STIR/SHAKEN, Caller Verified will work on calls made across networks.
It is estimated that 50% of U.S. mobile traffic will be scam calls in 2019. The calls, while absolutely annoying, also trick unsuspecting Americans into losing hundreds, and sometimes thousands of dollars to the crooks. Existing protection apps can blacklist known scam numbers. However they often miss legitimate numbers that’ve been spoofed. Caller Verified assures users that the incoming phone number they see has been verified as authentic.
Unfortunately, Caller Verified is limited to Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and it is limited to the T-Mobile network. The Magenta Network says it plans to make the new feature available on more smartphones later in the year. While the iPhone hasn’t been mentioned by T-Mobile, it is likely to gain Caller Verified support in the future.