Overview
- Vodafone, which disclosed the figures Wednesday, reported 64.5 million on-screen warnings for suspected fraud calls since launching its network-level alert system a year ago.
- Only 14% of flagged calls were answered, and those conversations averaged 40 seconds, compared with two minutes and 40 seconds for typical Vodafone calls.
- The warning appears as a display note that says a call may be fraudulent, which lets people decide whether to pick up while making it harder for scammers to keep them on the line.
- Vodafone’s data shows a workweek pattern with the most warnings on Wednesdays and the fewest on Sundays, and 83% of suspected calls used German numbers with others often showing Netherlands, Austria, UK, Cyprus or Lesotho origins, with a slight decline since December.
- Deutsche Telekom runs a similar Call Check that detects 400,000 to 600,000 attempts per weekday, O2 has no comparable system, and Vodafone’s security team warns criminals are starting to use AI voice deepfakes that can fool older users.