Airtel Kenya has today rolled out a new AI-powered Spam Alert Service. This service is available to all Airtel subscribers at no extra cost. This service was launched in Nigeria back in March.
This new service is designed to help Airtel customers using smartphones and feature phones detect and avoid suspicious text messages. The system works in the background and flags suspicious texts as “Suspected SPAM”.
Spam texts in Kenya have become a nuisance. They can be fake promotions to cleverly crafted scams meant to harvest your personal data or steal money. These SMS messages are now a real threat. The problem is so rampant that most mobile users receive at least a few every week from shady job offers, fake lotteries, and deceptive “urgent” messages to outright phishing attempts.
The AI behind the spam filter analyses over 250 parameters in real time, including the sender’s behaviour, message frequency, and target patterns. All this is done in just 2 milliseconds per SMS. It scans more than 18 million messages on the Airtel network. For web links sent via SMS, the system cross-checks them against a live database of blacklisted URLs, helping you avoid clicking on anything shady.
Until now, users had to rely on third-party apps to filter spam. These tools often came with privacy trade-offs or only worked on smartphones.
“Airtel is committed to offering cutting-edge solutions that improve customer experience,” said Airtel Kenya Managing Director Ashish Malhotra at the launch event in Nairobi. “This AI spam alert is the first of its kind in Kenya and helps our customers stay alert and safer from fraud on their phones.”
To report spam or suspicious activity, Airtel customers can dial *100# and select option 3, Report Fraud.
Also Read: Airtel Kenya Launches Airtel Lite, a Zero-Data Progressive Web App for Self-Care Services
