O2 UK’s AI Flags 50 Million Suspected SPAM and Scam Calls a Month

Readers may recall that mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) integrated Hiya’s new AI-powered scam detection service (‘Call Defence’) to help combat fraud and nuisance calls last November 2024 (here). Since then, more than 150 million “suspected” scam and spam calls have been flagged by the new technology, recently rising to more than 50m per month.

The service, which O2 launched for its customers “at no extra cost“, is clearly helping to protect consumers by using Adaptive AI to analyse call number behaviour in real-time (i.e. to determine whether it could be a scam or spam call and then alerting customers before they pick-up). Calls labelled as ‘suspected scam’ are now being answered 42% less often and are 89% shorter than unflagged calls.

The technology has been automatically rolled out to Android users, as well as iPhone (Apple) customers using the latest iOS v18 and above. This is necessary as Smartphones with older software can’t always take full advantage of the new service.

Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud Prevention at VMO2, said:

“With more than 50 million calls 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.

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. With fraudsters constantly evolving their tactics, we’re calling on Brits to play their part by reporting scam calls and texts for free via 7726. Every report helps improve our systems to stop scammers in their tracks.”