• EE is the UK’s first provider to offer Hiya’s call protection and identity service to mobile and BT Digital Voice customers
• The partnership with Hiya will help prevent nuisance calls by labelling and blocking spoof numbers
• The latest step in EE’s mission to be the UK’s safest network, already blocking 252 million scam texts and 53 million international bogus calls

Today, EE has announced the latest step in its mission to keep customers safe from scams calls by partnering with Hiya becoming the UK’s first provider of their Hiya Protect call protection service. The AI technology will work to identify and clearly label nuisance and scam calls at a network level for EE mobile and BT Digital Voice customers.

The partnership announcement comes as EE reveals that despite blocking 53 million international scam calls from its network, number spoofing is still a cause for concern, with consumers showing a growing distrust for calls from within the UK. Ofcom research says just under half (46%) of mobile and landline users who look at an incoming number before deciding to answer would be unlikely to pick up a call from an unknown UK landline number **. *

The Hiya protect service eliminates this caller anonymity by using AI technology to verify who is calling or label the call with a scam warning. The caller can then decide to block the call or send to voicemail. Eradicating the fear of the unknow callers and giving customers confidence to answer calls without worrying about scams or fraud.

Christian Thrane, MD for Marketing at BT and EE said: “EE has led the way against fraud since we launched our text anti-spam filter in 2021, blocking over 252 million scam texts to date. Partnering with Hiya is the next step in our strategic commitment to protect our customers against fraud. Using Hiya’s call labelling technology alongside our existing innovations, gives our mobile and Digital Voice home phone customers extra reassurance when answering calls.”

The Hiya Protect service will launch later this year and boosts existing nuisance call blocking launched in August 2022. EE currently uses firewall technology enabled by AI to review calls passing through UK Calling Line Identification (CLI) from other countries and blocks those pretending to be based in the UK, halting scam calls so that they never reach customers.

This technology helps every BT, Plusnet and EE customer but also benefits customers on other networks by detecting all inbound calls from international locations using UK numbers and stopping them from being further forwarded to other networks.

This latest partnership will help to reduce around 3500 calls a week that EE takes from worried customers concerned about potential scams. EE also recommends staying scam aware alongside the fraud prevention solutions.

EE’s top tips to avoid scams

Remember:

• Take a moment to stop and think and trust your instincts. If it sounds too good to be true or is suspicious, there’s probably a catch
• Don’t stay on the phone unless you’re 100% sure the caller is genuine
• Don’t give away any of your personal details or give anyone access to your computer – if you think you might have provided your bank account details, contact your bank immediately

What to do if you receive a suspicious call:

• Text the phone number and incident to 7726, free of charge, so your mobile phone provider can investigate
• Block numbers after reporting them
• Make others aware of these types of calls and the numbers they are coming from, so they are also in the know

As new call and text scams continue to develop, EE is working as part of a cross-industry alliance against scams, with Ofcom, ICO, National Cyber Security Centre and other mobile providers. EE works in collaboration to share data and intelligence to beat the scammers, to compliment the cross-industry reporting service 7726.

As part of BT Group, EE customers benefit from BT’s existing team of over 3,000 security specialists helping to keep its network and customers safe from cyber-attacks. BT Group leverages the latest developments in technology and innovation to protect the UK’s infrastructure and businesses, and to keep families safe online.