New change for Bell and other cellphone customers across Canada

There’s a new change for Bell and other cellphone customers in Canada.

Bell Canada said Tuesday that it is now using artificial intelligence to identify and flag spoofed calls.

Spoofed calls are one of the most deceptive tactics used by fraudsters.

It refers to when caller ID information is manipulated to impersonate organizations, businesses, or personal contacts to make it seem as if they are the ones calling you.

Bell said it is now the first carrier in Canada to identify and flag spoofed calls.

“Powered by a new AI detection model, the newly deployed enhancement identifies suspicious spoofing activity that extends beyond traditional spam and fraud detection, adding another layer of protection for customers,” Bell said in a press release.

Bell began suspicious call detection last year. It has analyzed 4.4 billion calls and blocked or labelled more than 540 million suspicious or fraudulent calls.

“While Bell’s suspicious call detection already helps protect customers from spam and fraudulent calls, this new AI-powered model takes detection a step further by identifying suspicious spoofing activity in real time,” the company said.

“The addition of AI-powered spoofing detection capability will expand that protection further to help stop millions more deceptive calls before they reach customers,” Bell added.

The new feature is automatically rolling out to customers using any Android and iOS phones on Bell, Virgin Plus, Lucky Mobile, PC Mobile, No Name and Maxi services.

No action or opt-in is needed from customers.

“Phone scams are getting more sophisticated, and so is our network,” said Steve Karan, the vice president of wireless products and logistics at Bell.

“Suspicious call detection has already helped protect customers from hundreds of millions of spam calls. Now with a new AI model to catch and flag spoofed calls in real time, we’re adding another powerful layer of protection. It’s a significant advancement that helps Canadians stay safer and answer calls with greater confidence.”