Suspicious Call Detection

[BellDRock]

What is suspicious call detection and how does it protect me?

Suspicious call detection uses AI analytics to monitor incoming calls in real time, and it alerts you about potential spam or fraud; allowing you to decide whether to answer incoming calls by labelling the suspicious ones.  It is automatically available for all Bell Mobility customers at no extra charge and cannot be turned off.

While the feature only identifies potential spam or fraud, you have the option to block specific phone numbers directly through the call settings on your device.

When you receive a call from a suspicious and unknown phone number, your device will display a warning label to help you decide whether to answer:

• Likely Fraud – calls deemed highly suspicious and fraudulent
• Possible Spam – calls that appear suspicious but are more likely to be categorized as unsolicited

❗Exercise caution when answering calls with these labels.

Android devices

Newer Android devices typically provide a similar spam protection feature. If your Android device's spam protection is on, it may override Bell's Suspicious call detection feature. To ensure you receive our service, follow below to turn off Android's feature:

1. Open the Phone app on your Android device.
2. Tap More options (three vertical dots) > Settings.
3. Toggle off Caller ID and Spam protection.

How can I ensure my important calls don’t get mislabelled?

While Bell makes every effort to prevent important calls from being mislabelled, consider adding key contacts – such as your family doctor or hospital – to your device's contact list. This proactive step helps ensure these numbers are recognized and not incorrectly identified.

Can I update my language preference for the labels?

Labels for Suspicious Call Detection are bilingual, displaying both English and French. The primary language depends on your region: French appears first for customers in Québec based on your area code, and English appears first for customers in the rest of Canada.

For more info visit Suspicious Call Detection. To learn more about fraud and how you can prevent it, we encourage you to read our other articles and visit Bell.ca/security.

Social engineering – How cybercriminals focus on people

Emotions - the cornerstone of fraud

Do you suspect fraud? What to do next

[Retiredandbored]

For me personally, I find the Google Pixel's "AI" caller ID and spam control to be very effective and have been using it since I got my Google Pixel 8 first on version 14, then 15.

It has the already highly developed database and AI generative and neural processing building their detection database for 2 years now.  I just got ours 7 months ago, my wife in January.

Google android newest versions also have a feature called call screening - you choose that option and it operates like the add on answering machines for our home phones - my brother used one up until 2 years ago when Bell pushed out Fibre and he dumped his home phone as he said, what do I want a landline without the ability to work without power and he went to another company for Internet and dumped TV at the same time.

So, in the old days, for those younger who never experienced it, we could listen to the voice mail as it was being recorded, and pick it up if we recognized the person or company as we didn't have such things as caller ID or number display.

So the Google feature, when you click it says, this call is being screened, please leave your name, number and purpose, and their answer is transcribed back to my phone live.  No data is going back to servers, it is all on the phone using their call transcription features.  They usually just hang up as soon as they hear (a computer I am sure, the AI battles, who will win?!).  You can then immediately identify them as a spam, done.  The number is stored in call log, so it is possible to still research it a bit, as it may be real.  Use a search is what I do.

Google also identifies where it is coming from based upon directory listing, and IP addresses, but it can be spoofed of course, but amazing how many calls I got from New Jersey over 3 days, before they gave up and moved on.  Thank you Google.  Yes, they know your number exists, but I am sure in Bell model they may too as it did connect, I think, but after Google spam blocking in place, or screening, they move on.  My spam calls are almost zero these days.  They show up in blocks. Google has been at the call screening feature for 4 years now under different names, I just had an old OS up until now.  Apple followed a year or two later, and now Bell 4 years later is in the game now. Spam filtering for Google phone calls have been in place since 2018, apple the next year with version 13, so Bell is very late in the game.

So, pick and choose which you prefer. I would rather keep building Google tools since they have been at it 

So since Bell is warning me about possible conflict with Google tools, Google wins hands down for me.  

So, don't know whether iPhone users whether Bell overrides it, or Apple takes precedence.  Great feature for those who have earlier versions of android - pre 9 (nothing runs on earlier anyway now), and for Apple, pre 13.

Play around and see which you prefer, does anyone know if Bell's takes over the feature on Apple or Apple feature takes precedence, the warning above, for me, sorry, Bell, great to see you catching up, but way too late in the game for me and many others I am sure.

Good to see Bell making good use of AI features for something besides automated chat "AI" which is still like a baby in its learning.  You have to ask it the right way, and it has to have the answer in the database and doesn't seem to be driving back to development when it can't answer questions, but then again neither can Support staff in my experience lately.

So give it a whirl if you are interested.  Doesn't look like you have any choice. No way to turn it off it seems.

"Suspicious call detection is automatically available for all Bell Mobility customers at no extra charge.

It is automatically enabled to protect you from suspicious calls and cannot be turned off."

So, if anyone runs into issues with this feature conflicting with your desired choice, please contact bell support first to advise and trouble shoot - answer at the moment I am sure will be the above.

Google does let you choose different 3rd party apps for these features on your phone if you desire, but as this is network driven, at this time, Google Android could not block it out as default choice available in settings.

I prefer choice, I don't like any company forcing a new feature that may conflict with my device.  They obviously are aware of this issue, since it is reported, nice to see early documentation, guess TV is not a priority documentation product and glad phones are, but Mobility has always pretty much done their own thing for years, I was told Mobility is Mobility, residential is the other stuff, as it should be, they are completely different technology bases.

So glad to see this post, lets see if Bell resolves the conflict and gives choice, and definitely shout out to Bell and hear on your experience.  So far my Google caller ID and Spam protection is doing its job as it has for years, first on email, then text and phones.

Bruce