Hiya, the leader in voice security, has been selected by Virgin Media O2, one of the UK’s largest telecommunications companies, to provide its AI-powered spam-fighting and branded calling services to Virgin Media O2 and its mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) such as giffgaff.
Hiya will provide customers of Virgin Media O2 with an additional layer of fraud protection, and will run alongside its existing firewall technology which has prevented more than 89 million spam texts from reaching customers in 2023 alone.
Phone spam and fraud are persistent challenges for telco carriers worldwide. In the UK alone, 28% of unknown calls were spam according to the latest Hiya study – and nearly 10% of those were fraud calls.
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Spam and fraud-fighting tools, such as Hiya Protect, and branded calling services, such as Hiya Connect, can help carriers overcome these issues. Hiya Protect uses Adaptive AI to analyze call number behaviour to determine whether to flag the call as suspected spam or block it as fraud. Hiya Protect users can even build custom detection models using their own data. Hiya Connect allows companies to add identity to their calls with their company name, logo, call purpose and location, so recipients immediately know who is calling and why.
“In the fight against fraud, we’re committed to rolling out the latest technology to help keep our customers safe,” said Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud at Virgin Media O2. “From AI tools to help us block fraudulent calls, to services that help identify callers before a customer has even picked up the phone, our extensive partnership with Hiya will see us continue to improve on our existing measures and give customers’ additional protection from spam and fraudsters.”
“We are proud to provide our spam and fraud protection and branded calling services to Virgin Media O2, a company known for its exceptional service throughout the UK,” said Kush Parikh, President of Hiya. “Carriers around the world are wrestling with how to prevent phone spam and scams, and protect the reputation of business customers. Hiya is doing its part to restore confidence in voice calling by aligning with leaders like Virgin Media O2.”
Last year, Virgin Media O2 shared the most common spam text trends to help warn customers what to look out for and avoid following analysis of the tens of millions of malicious and fraudulent text messages blocked from reaching its customers. ‘Hi Mum/Hi Dad’, fake delivery and bank payment text messages topped the list.
According to Hiya’s latest report, the most common phone scams in the UK include scams impersonating the country’s tax agency, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, immigration scams, and Amazon scams. There are also service scams in the UK targeting elder subscribers specifically including energy and pension scams.
SOURCE: BusinessWire