There are plenty of tools out there for filtering and blocking spam calls. But what about the calls you actually answer?
That’s the problem Microsoft is trying to address with a new service called Azure Operator Call Protection, which analyzes conversations in real time and can alert the user if the caller seems suspicious. Microsoft has been piloting the program with BT Group and is demonstrating how the technology works at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona.
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The announcement comes as spam calls continue to be a persistent problem. In a study that involved analyzing 98 billion phone calls worldwide, voice security platform Hiya reported that the average phone user gets about 14 spam calls per month. The Federal Communications Commission recently cracked down on robocalls by deeming scam calls made using AI-generated voices to be illegal.
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Azure Operator Call Protection is a service that Microsoft will be offering as an option for mobile carriers to offer to their subscribers. It uses AI to listen up for signals that a call might be fraudulent throughout a conversation. Such indicators could include language that encourages the recipient to give away sensitive information over the phone, says Shawn Hakl, vice president of 5G strategy for Microsoft’s Azure for Operators program.
“The good news is this also just reinforces best practices that people often lapse,” Hakl said.
Among the most common scams are fake callers impersonating Amazon, insurance providers and credit card companies as well as crooks trying to trick you into giving away Medicare information, according to Hiya. Hakl also says the AI model will evolve over time as new types of threats emerge.
The current version of the tool will interrupt the call to alert…
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