Airtel Africa has launched the continent’s first artificial intelligence (AI) powered spam alert service to fight against spam and other fraudulent activities.
Launched in Nigeria, the service will begin rendering in the country before a regional rollout. Airtel subscribers can use the tool for free at zero cost.
The escalation of fraudulent activities in Africa and its enormous effect affirms the need for preventive solutions like this.
In 2024, Nigeria’s financial sector recorded a N52.26 billion loss due to fraud. A figure that represents a 196% increase over the past five years.
“This product is not a pricing product, it is more about protecting customers, keeping customers secure, safe,” said Dinesh Balsingh, Managing Director and CEO for Airtel Nigeria.
How does it work?
The tool detects suspicious activities and alerts users in real time by scanning parameters like SMS patterns, device behaviour, and call activities.
It uses a proprietary dual-layer protection system that analyzes over 250 parameters, including sender usage patterns, SMS frequency, and geographical spread of targets.
The system also filters all SMS in real-time capable of processing over 1.5 billion messages in just two milliseconds.
Powered by a centralized database of blacklisted URLs, it scans SMS messages in real-time to detect malicious links.
Last week, Google launched a similar AI-powered tool for detecting scams in calls and text messages.
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