Telstra has launched Scam Protect, a new feature that warns you when an incoming call might be suspicious, prompting you to reconsider answering. Telstra Scam Protect has been developed to give customers more control by helping them make more informed decisions on which calls to answer and which are better off ringing through to voicemail.
Phone calls are still a popular way for scammers to catch people out. According to the ACCC’s recent Targeting Scam Report, phone scams accounted for the highest overall financial losses among all contact methods in 2024, with AUD107.2 million reported lost across 2,179 reports.
The new, in-house solution alerts customers to suspicious or unverified calls by displaying a message in real time, directly from their device screen:
- Warning: potential fraud: This message applies to calls that may be fraudulent, either calling you from a spoofed number (when a scammer falsifies the number to make it look legitimate, so you’re tricked into answering it) or has a suspicious calling pattern.
- Unverified: overseas call: The call appears to be from a local mobile number, but our network detects it’s coming from overseas and may be suspicious. This message only appears for calls deemed suspicious.
- Warning: suspicious calling pattern: Indicates a high volume of incoming traffic from a single number. This is associated with potential spam and means you should be cautious.
While Telstra blocks more than 11 million scam calls on average every month, the telco admits there’s always more to do. Cyber criminals constantly adapt their techniques to slip through the net. Using a variety of tactics to evade detection and appear legitimate, they often have one goal in mind – persuading unsuspecting users into handing over information or money.
Telstra says while it is blocking millions of scam calls, it also needs to be careful not to unintentionally block genuine communications, which is part of the reason why some malicious calls can unfortunately still slip through.
The Telstra Scam Protect is integrated directly into Telstra’s network and is now available to all its retail and wholesale services (with compatible devices), including Boost Mobile, Belong and others.
Customers don’t need to do anything to activate it. Alerts will appear automatically at no extra cost.
Since starting the roll out at the end of December 2024, Telstra Scam Protect warning messages have been applied to over 10 million calls – alerting Australians to exercise caution on potentially harmful calls.
Telstra Scam Protect is just one of a series of recent initiatives that we’ve launched to help better protect customers from scams. These include:
- Device security essentials: a free feature embedded into the MyTelstra App to help protect your device from online threats, powered by McAfee.
- Scam Indicator and Fraud Indicator, developed by Quantium Telstra in partnership with Telstra and CBA, initiatives that are helping protect joint customers from fraudulent calls and identity theft.
While these initiatives help keep you better protected, combatting scammers is a team sport and we all have a role to play to stay alert.
