Is AI the key to stopping nuisance calls? O2's 'suspected scam' alerts flag 50MILLION per month

Is AI the key to stopping nuisance calls? O2's 'suspected scam' alerts flag 50MILLION per month
It aims to warn customers of potentially fraudulent calls before they answer
By HARVEY DORSET
Updated: 07:00 GMT, 22 March 2025
More than 150million scam and spam calls have been flagged by O2's AI-powered 'call defence' tech since it launched in November.
The feature, which was automatically activated on all compatible phones on the O2 network, aims to warn customers of potentially fraudulent calls before they answer.
When a call is received that the technology has identified as suspect, the customer will read 'suspected scam' on the screen, meaning they can decline it or block the number.
The network said the number of calls flagged is now increasing to as many as 50million per month.
The number of compatible devices is also increasing daily as people upgrade their devices to the latest software and operating systems.
As a result of the system, it says calls labelled 'suspected scam' are being answered 42 per cent less often and are 89 per cent shorter than calls that are not flagged, according to O2.
Flagging: O2's call defence system alerts users that a call could be a scam
Some fraudulent calls can also be automatically blocked by the system.
O2 said the most common scam calls were from fraudsters impersonating HMRC, followed by scammers claiming to be from Amazon, car payment providers, immigration officials and people offering mobile phone deals.
Murray Mackenzie, director of fraud prevention at Virgin Media O2 said: 'With more than 50 million suspected nuisance and scam calls now being flagged every month, we're empowering O2 customers in the fight against fraud, arming them with important information when deciding whether to pick up the phone.'
The calls are only those flagged on O2's network, so including all the other networks, the number of scam calls made is likely to be much higher.
According to voice intelligence firm Hiya, which developed the call defence scheme with O2, the typical Briton receives four nuisance calls each month, which could amount to as many as 200 million unwanted calls across all networks.
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O2 has also rolled out caller identification for businesses, known as Brand ID, which gives users information about the organisation making the call.
Some 200 businesses have already signed up to the service, including major banks and insurers, and 9.5million calls have been through the system.
Mackenzie said: 'This free AI service is just one of the many ways we're working to keep Virgin Media O2 customers safe, and builds on our work to block more than 168 million scam texts in the last two years alone.'
These scam texts were blocked partially as a result of scams being reported.
How to report a scam call
Most UK phone networks are part of a joint reporting scheme, where customers send on suspicious texts and details of calls.
Suspected scam calls and text can be reported to 7726. Doing so helps providers to flag and block the calls in the future.
To report a scam text, forward it to 7726, to report a call, text the word 'Call' followed by the scammer's phone number to 7726.
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Is AI the key to stopping nuisance calls? O2's 'suspected scam' alerts flag 50MILLION per month
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