Last year 16% of UK consumers lost money through a phone scam, costing an average of £632 – now EE is leveraging Hiya’s AI to examine every aspect of every incoming call
From today, EE’s pay monthly customers can subscribe to a new service, Scam Guard for a £1 a month. It is designed to protect its consumer customers from scams and online threats. This includes against potentially fraudulent calls, data and online activity.
EE is the most biggest network provider in the UK, with over 22% of consumers, according to U-switch. The mobile operator’s website says, “EE is one of the UK’s largest subscription businesses, serving 25 million customers, backed by the UK’s fastest mobile network, and offering superfast connections in more places than any other mobile provider.”
All generations are potential targets. EE blocks around 15 million suspicious calls and texts every month and blocked more than 84 million attempted scams in the first six months of 2024, twice the number in the same period last year.
Scam Guard labels possible spam and scams as just that (see above) using AI from Hiya that analyses all aspects of every call in real time to identify those that are suspicious. An early(ish) example of AI providing new revenue streams for operators?
Some 40% of crimes committed in the UK are fraud based and 96% of all phone users regularly suffer nuisance calls. A study from Hiya found that 16% of UK consumers reported losing money to a phone scam in the last year, with those who were scammed losing £632 on average.
Scam Guard also monitors the dark web and alerts subscribers if their personal information, like bank card details and email login info, is found and provides details of breaches and tips for securing personal info.
The subscription offers free Cyber Security Duo from Norton for three months for those signing up now which provides real-time protection for up to two devices against viruses, malware, online threats and provides tools for stronger password creation and social media security.
It identifies unsafe texts with links, personal information monitoring on the dark web and protection of social media accounts. On average Norton blocks nearly 250,000 attacks every day in the UK.
Norton found that 72% of UK adults don’t understand how the dark web works, and 40% have never heard of a dark web monitoring service to see if their personal information is on the dark web. Hence Scam Guard seeks to educate as well eliminate threats.
Helen Burrows, Policy Director for BT said: “Our investment in Scam Guard is something we are all incredibly proud of. We truly believe it will make a significant contribution to the prevention of scams and fraudsters.
“EE was a founding member of Stop Scams UK, and part of a cross-industry alliance to share intelligence on scams. We also employ security experts and network-level security to safeguard our network and customers from cyber-attacks. This is something we take seriously, and while we already block an impressive number of scams, there is always more that we can do. Scam Guard covers all bases so customers can feel safer on our network.”
Scam Guard is now available to all EE pay monthly mobile customers and will be available to purchase as an add on. Dark Web Monitoring and access to free Cyber Security Duo for three months can only be activated by the account holder. For more information go to https://ee.co.uk/security/scam-guard.