Bell is rolling out a new tool in the fight against spam and scam calls to help warn customers about incoming calls.
The company’s new ‘Suspicious Call Detection’ will use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to label incoming calls as “Likely Fraud” or “Possible Spam.” The new labels should help inform people and hopefully reduce the number of spam and scam calls they answer.
Bell’s Suspicious Call Detection is rolling out now, for free, across the company’s mobility brands and plans. That means Virgin Plus and Lucky Mobile customers will benefit from the tool as well.
Bell claims the AI tool will “get smarter over time” and learn from call patterns and threats.
Per a support page for the new feature, customers don’t need to do anything to enable Suspicious Call Detection. However, there’s also no way to turn it off.
Update April 30, 2025 at 4:27 p.m. ET: Bell told MobileSyrup that a mistake on its website said Samsung devices had a similar call labelling feature that needed to be turned off in order to use Suspicious Call Detection.
Bell clarified that it’s not just Samsung — most Android devices offer similar spam protection features. Moreover, Bell says the features can co-exist but that Android’s version typically takes priority and can override Bell’s call detection.
Android users who want to make sure they’re using Bell’s Suspicious Call Detection can head to the Phone app, tapping the three-dot menu > Settings > and turning off ‘Caller ID and Spam protection.’ Doing so will automatically turn on Bell’s call detection.
Elsewhere, Bell recommends adding important contacts to your phone’s contact list to avoid calls from those numbers being mislabeled.
Bell says Suspicious Call Detection builds off existing call-blocking tech that prevents known fraudulent calls from reaching customers. The company claims it blocked over 6.6 billion unwanted calls since piloting the tech in 2020 and launching it in 2021.
It’s worth noting that Rogers and Telus also have anti spam call tools available. In 2023, Rogers rolled out ‘Spam Call Detect,’ which labels potential spam or fraudulent calls just like Bell’s Suspicious Call Detect. Telus launched ‘Call Control’ in 2020, which screens calls in an attempt to stop robocalls from getting through.
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