O2, a UK mobile network, now blocks calls it suspects are scams before the phone rings. The free service is automatic and expects to stop over 3 million calls a week.
O2, a major UK mobile network, has started blocking calls it suspects are scams before the phone rings. The service is free and switches on automatically for all compatible phones, with nothing to download. O2 expects to block more than 3 million scam calls a week, a figure based on results from a trial earlier this autumn.
Until now, O2 mostly warned customers about suspected scam calls. Now it blocks them. The system comes from Hiya, a voice security company. It uses AI-assisted tools to watch the network for nuisance callers, and it keeps improving based on customer reports and analysis of how calls behave.
O2 says it is the first UK operator to block all calls suspected as scam. Other operators offer some form of protection. Suspected spam calls will still be flagged with a warning. O2 also already blocks numbers on Ofcom's 'Do Not Originate' list, a registry of numbers that should never make outbound calls.
Since the start of 2024, O2 has used the technology to flag more than 1.6 billion suspected scam and spam calls. The company says that history gave it confidence to move from warning to blocking, while legitimate calls still get through.
The trial also showed scammers did not seem to notice they were blocked. About 60% of blocked calls were repeat attempts within a minute of the first. On average, a number labeled as fraud tried three times as many calls after being blocked as before.
O2's latest quarterly Scam Index found that 61% of Brits who met a suspected scam said it was a phone call between July and September. That is up five percentage points from the previous quarter. More than two in five people say scams have made them ignore unknown calls or messages, and nearly six in 10 over-55s say so.
Deepfakes add to the worry. A Hiya report found 31% of respondents received one in the last year, and another 15% were unsure because they can be so realistic. O2 also blocks scam texts with firewall technology. More than 1.4 billion have been stopped so far.
The 3 million figure is an expectation drawn from the trial, not a count of real results over time. The material does not say which phones count as compatible, so customers who are unsure may need to check with O2.
If you use O2 in the UK, the blocking is already on for compatible phones, and reporting suspect numbers to 7726 helps it work better.
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