T-Mobile today unveiled its latest "Un-carrier" initiative, Scam Shield, which is designed to block robocalls and scam calls targeting T-Mobile, Metro, and Sprint customers.
A free service, Scam Shield offers scam identification and blocking for every customer and provides more information about who's calling with enhanced Caller ID. T-Mobile is also offering a free second number so customers can keep their main numbers safe, plus free number changes and free ID monitoring.
T-Mobile competitors Verizon and AT&T have similar services, but charge for some features. Verizon, for example, has a free Call Filter service that IDs spam calls, but charges $2.99 per month for features like caller ID, blocking, and spam look up.
AT&T also has a free service for blocking fraud calls, but charges $3.99 per month for caller ID, reverse number lookup, custom call controls, and more. T-Mobile says that it is challenging other carriers to offer the same free services provided to T-Mobile customers.
"Today, I'm challenging the Carriers to get off their assets, stop profiting from fear and do the right thing, because everyone needs and deserves protection now, more than ever," said T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert.
T-Mobile and Metro customers can activate scam blocking by dialing #662# on their smartphones as of today, with the Scam Shield app launching on July 24. Sprint customers will be able to download an upgraded Call Screener app from the App Store on July 24 to activate free scam ID and blocking along with caller ID.
Along with the new Scam Shield service, T-Mobile also announced that it will be combining operations with Sprint and unifying under the T-Mobile brand in retail stores nationwide.
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As for free proxy phone number, only 1 number is provided per plan, and only for customers on Essentials, Magenta, and Magenta Plus plans. Older customers will have to pay $9.99/month.
On a related note, it's a letdown that iOS 14 does not advance call blocking feature. iOS 13 identified STIR/SHAKEN verified numbers, but they cannot be filtered. "Silence Unknown Callers" feature should optionally allow verified numbers. Furthermore, nothing like Android's Call Screen feature.
Try turning off Wi-Fi. It sometimes require cellular connection to enable/disable.
It's actually kind of driving me crazy. I get a 3+ robo calls per day most days. I've actually considered porting my number to a VOIP such as Google Voice to be able to have an automated screening system, and using a data-enabled iPad Mini as my primary comm device instead of an iPhone.
This is an area where I think Apple should step up and try to find a solution. Getting too many spam calls with drive down iPhone sales, so they have a vested interest in this.
#1 - no - I'm guessing they leverage databases of known robo call sources.
#2 - All carriers have been logging phone calls accepted / declined / initiated for something like forever.
I was on a jury for a murder trial several years ago - part of the evidence was the cell phone company logs of the murderer's phone calls that afternoon. It included which tower his phone was making the call through, as well as which antenna on the tower - with the tower addresses and the antenna direction it was strong evidence of his (phone's) movements that day. ... and that was with a dumb flip-phone.