T-Mobile is taking on phone scammers with new Caller Verified technology

If you own a smartphone, you have likely seen and answered calls that appear to come from your local area code, but are actually automated messages and scams. Today, T-Mobile announced it has launched a new technology called Caller Verified.

T-Mobile says that Caller Verified is the carrier’s label for the use of the STIR and SHAKEN standards, both of which are designed to detect when scammers spoof a local number. Customers that have been updated with the carrier’s new technology will now see a “Caller Verified” label when a voice message has been confirmed as a real phone call and not one generated by scammers. T-Mobile says it is the first carrier to use the STIR and SHAKEN standards.

T-Mobile added that it has been making headway towards fighting scam calls for some time. In 2017, it launched Scam ID, which notified users if an incoming call looked like a scam call, as well as Scam Block, which let users block those kinds of calls. In 2018, it launched a Name ID app that offered features like reverse number lookup, personal number blocking and more.

The Uncarrier claims these efforts have already had a considerable impact, stating that in the last 18 months, it has blocked over one billion scam calls, while also labeling 8.9 billion calls as Scam Likely.

Read next: Common phone scams you should be aware of

T-Mobile will first roll out Caller Verified via an over-the-air update to the Samsung Galaxy Note 9. Other smartphones will receive the update in the coming months.