Scam call attempts grew by 116% in 2021, according to a T-Mobile year-end scam robocalls report.
According to the carrier, T-Mobile Scam Shield identified or blocked over 21 billion scam calls during the year.
Nevertheless, scam volume doubled in 2021, according to T-Mobile. The lowest measured month for scam traffic was January 2021, with 1.1 billion calls to the carrier’s customers identified as “scam-likely.” Such calls increased to 2.5 billion calls by November.
Weekends see a decrease in scam calls, with an 80% decrease, compared to weekdays, T-Mobile said. The report also found that scammers tend to pose as a business. The top scam attempt in 2021 was related to fake vehicle warranties with more than half (51%) of the scam-likely volume.
Other top scam attempts were false representations as the Social Security office (10%), wireless provider (9%), car insurance company (6%) or package delivery (4%).
“Attempted scam calls hit record highs in 2021, but with Scam Shield we are identifying or blocking an average 1.8 billion calls each month — or 700 calls per second — for our T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile customers,” said Jon Freier, president of T-Mobile’s consumer group, in a prepared statement about the scam robocalls report. “We know that scammers won’t stop as long as they continue to be successful, so we are doing everything we can to make their job as hard as possible.”
Beyond the company’s proprietary robocall blocking technology, T-Mobile and other carriers have benefited from STIR/SHAKEN technology, which has been mandated by the FCC.
