T-Mobile on Thursday announced that it is the first US wireless provider to work with all other major networks to implement STIR/SHAKEN to fight number spoofing and further protect customers from scammers. T-Mobile now authenticates calls with wireless and network providers that collectively represent around 98% of wireless customers in the U.S.
T-Mobile’s “Scam Shield” feature detects and blocks scams and robocalls. It is a free Caller ID tool that warns customers when a caller is likely to be a scammer, and there’s an option to block scammers entirely. The company says it has been working on improving the feature.
“T-Mobile was first to implement number verification in 2019 because protecting customers against scammers and spammers is one of the most important things we can do as an industry,” said Mike Sievert, CEO T-Mobile. “To date, T-Mobile has protected over 80 million customers from more than 33 billion suspect calls – and counting. With the combination of Number Verification, free Caller ID and the scam blocking tools in Scam Shield, and by working with network providers of all sizes, we are providing the industry’s most comprehensive scam and spam protection for free to all our customers and working every day to make scammers jobs impossible.”
The FCC is requiring all carriers in the United States to implement STIR/SHAKEN by June 2021, so other major wireless carriers, like AT&T and Verizon, will soon need to put the same protections in place.