T-Mobile customers likely to get fewer scam calls starting April (Update: live now)

Original post (3/24): Getting a call is so rare that it’s almost exciting these days. At least for me. But imagine the disappointment when you realize it’s just an automated voice selling insurance. That’s why T-Mobile is pushing out an update called Scam ID for its customers so that known spam and scam numbers show up as such.

Starting April 5, T-Mobile ONE customers won’t have to worry about wasting their time answering spam or scam calls. Whether it’s a salesperson hassling you to buy something or a more malicious imposter call looking to extract money out of you, T-Mobile’s Scam ID update should notify you when an incoming call is likely a scam:

The database is kept up-to-date in near real-time by analyzing every call that comes into the network with behavioral heuristics and intelligent scam pattern detection. When a match is found, the T-Mobile network tags the incoming call and warns the customer that it’s likely from a scammer. Because of the way T-Mobile’s network manages voice traffic, the Un-carrier is capable of analyzing every call to identify and block scammers.

However, if you don’t want to deal with these calls at all, you can sign up for what T-Mobile calls Scam Block. Just as it sounds, Scam Block will not only identify potential spam or scam calls, but it will automatically block them at the network level.

T-Mobile ONE customers will automatically receive the Scam ID update, but any postpaid customer can dial #ON# (#664#) to enable the feature starting April 5. Unlike Scam ID, Scam Block won’t be enabled automatically for any T-Mobile customer, but all you have to do is dial #ONB# (#662#) to turn it on and #OFB# (#632#) to turn it off. And lastly, to check whether Scam Block is on or off, customers can dial #STS# (#787#).

Will you be enabling Scam ID and Scam Block? Let us know by leaving a comment below!