{"id":"AIBD-0999","title":"The CRTC approves Bell Canada's AI-assisted call blocking after it blocked over one billion fraudulent calls with no confirmed false positives","summary":"Bell Canada reported to the CRTC that its AI-assisted system blocked 1,120,372,443 calls in 15 months. The CRTC judged the risk of wrongful blocking extremely low and made the blocking permanent.","date_observed":"2021-12-09","date_basis":"source publication","date_precision":"day","benefit_status":"reported","source_collection":null,"source_entry":null,"account":"Bell Canada and its affiliates use artificial intelligence to analyze telecommunications traffic and flag anomalies that suggest fraud. The anomalies are reviewed, and if fraud is verified, Bell blocks related calls at the network level. Every voice call on, to or through Bell's networks is subject to analysis. By Bell's reports, the system blocked 1,120,372,443 calls from 15 July 2020, when a CRTC-approved trial began, to 16 October 2021. On 9 December 2021, the CRTC found that blocking over one billion fraudulent calls with no confirmed false positives was evidence that the system could serve the public good. It noted that complaints about fraudulent calls to Bell and to itself had fallen. After reviewing Bell's confidential procedures, it judged the risk of wrongful blocking extremely low. It acknowledged that the absence of confirmed false positives did not prove that there were none. Two interveners argued that a cumbersome complaint process could hide errors. The CRTC made the blocking permanent. In September 2022, Chairperson Ian Scott told a parliamentary committee that the system had blocked more than 1.5 billion calls.","category":"aggregate result","unexpected":false,"purpose":"Bell Canada built its call-blocking system to detect fraudulent and scam voice calls on its networks and block them before they reach Canadians.","system":"Bell Canada's network-level call-blocking system for fraudulent and scam voice calls (AI anomaly flagging with review)","model_version":null,"developer":"Bell Canada","deployer":"Bell Canada and its affiliates (Bell Canada et al.)","location":"Canada","domain":"Telecommunications / fraud prevention","segment":null,"benefit_type":"Reduced Risk","work_activities":["4.A.1.a.2","4.A.2.a.4"],"taxonomy_note":null,"registry_ids":{},"ratings":[{"group":"societal","depth":2,"reason":"Bell reported more than 1.1 billion blocked calls in 15 months, and the CRTC noted that fraud complaints had fallen, but no measure of losses avoided is reported."}],"ai_role":{"status":"unassessed","statement":"The CRTC says that the system uses artificial intelligence to flag anomalies in traffic, which are reviewed before related calls are blocked. It credits the whole mechanism and does not separate the AI's share or compare blocking without it. Bell states on its own site that the system combines artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms."},"evidence":[{"kind":"regulatory document","citation":"Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Compliance and Enforcement and Telecom Decision CRTC 2021-403: Bell Canada - Application to allow Bell Canada and its affiliates to block certain fraudulent and scam voice calls on a permanent basis. Ottawa, 9 December 2021. Archived copy of https://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2021/2021-403.htm.","title":"Compliance and Enforcement and Telecom Decision CRTC 2021-403","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/2026id_/https://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2021/2021-403.htm","date":"2021-12-09","written_by":"independent","quote":"The Commission considers that the fact that the call-blocking mechanism has successfully blocked over one billion fraudulent calls with no confirmed false positives constitutes significant evidence of the capability of Bell Canada et al.’s call-blocking system to serve the public good"},{"kind":"regulatory document","citation":"Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Compliance and Enforcement and Telecom Decision CRTC 2021-403. Ottawa, 9 December 2021. Archived copy of https://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2021/2021-403.htm.","title":"Compliance and Enforcement and Telecom Decision CRTC 2021-403","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/2026id_/https://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2021/2021-403.htm","date":"2021-12-09","written_by":"independent","quote":"Based on the reports filed with the Commission, Bell Canada et al.’s call-blocking system successfully blocked 1,120,372,443 calls since it became operational on 15 July 2020 until the end of the 16th reporting period on 16 October 2021."},{"kind":"regulatory document","citation":"Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Compliance and Enforcement and Telecom Decision CRTC 2021-403. Ottawa, 9 December 2021. Archived copy of https://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2021/2021-403.htm.","title":"Compliance and Enforcement and Telecom Decision CRTC 2021-403","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/2026id_/https://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2021/2021-403.htm","date":"2021-12-09","written_by":"independent","quote":"Moreover, the significant reduction in the number of complaints regarding fraudulent calls received by Bell Canada et al. and the Commission since the beginning of the trial serves as another indicator of the positive results of Bell Canada et al.’s call-blocking system."},{"kind":"descriptive report","citation":"Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Ian Scott, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, to the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology (fraudulent calls), speaking notes, 29 September 2022. The figure comes from Bell's reporting to the CRTC. Archived copy of the canada.ca page.","title":"Ian Scott to the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/2026id_/https://www.canada.ca/en/radio-television-telecommunications/news/2022/09/ian-scott-to-the-standing-committee-on-industry-and-technology.html","date":"2022-09-29","written_by":"independent","quote":"Encouraged by the results of a 15-month trial conducted by Bell, we approved its application to implement this technology on a permanent basis in December 2021. To date, including the trial period, more than 1.5 billion calls have been successfully intercepted in Bell’s network and blocked."},{"kind":"other","citation":"Bell Canada. How does Bell protect my business from fraudulent calls? Bell Business support page (business.bell.ca). Accessed 1 November 2026.","title":"How does Bell protect my business from fraudulent calls?","url":"https://business.bell.ca/support/medium-large/mobility/fraudulent-abusive-calls","date":null,"written_by":"makers","quote":"Available only from Bell, our call-blocking technology combines artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to analyze every call originating, terminating, or transiting through the Bell network. Calling numbers that are performing fraudulent activity are blocked. Since our national trial began in 2020, we have blocked more than 6.6 billion fraudulent and abusive calls."}],"replication":{"produced_by":["The system analyzed every voice call that originated on, ended on or passed through Bell's networks.","Anomalies flagged by the AI were reviewed, and calls tied to verified fraud were blocked at the network level.","Bell could refine the algorithm to detect more fraud and adapt to fraudsters' changing behavior."],"must_hold":["Bell must report on each complaint of a wrongly blocked number within two business days.","Data used to detect fraud may serve no other purpose.","Bell must tell the CRTC of any change to the AI system within 60 days."],"echoes":[]},"paired_incident":null,"headline":"Bell's AI call blocking stops over a billion fraud calls in Canada","metric":"1,120,372,443 calls","comparator":{"against":"Complaints about fraudulent calls received by Bell and the CRTC before the trial began","before":null,"after":null,"basis":"measured","quote":"Moreover, the significant reduction in the number of complaints regarding fraudulent calls received by Bell Canada et al. and the Commission since the beginning of the trial serves as another indicator of the positive results of Bell Canada et al.’s call-blocking system.","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/2026id_/https://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2021/2021-403.htm"},"later":{"status":"persisted","date":"2022-09-29","note":"The CRTC's chairperson told the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology that, including the trial, Bell's system had blocked more than 1.5 billion calls.","quote":"To date, including the trial period, more than 1.5 billion calls have been successfully intercepted in Bell’s network and blocked.","url":"https://web.archive.org/web/2026id_/https://www.canada.ca/en/radio-television-telecommunications/news/2022/09/ian-scott-to-the-standing-committee-on-industry-and-technology.html"},"value":null,"developer_country":"Canada","deployer_country":"Canada","unrated_because":null,"brief_notes":null,"brief":null,"revisions":[{"date":"2026-11-01","change":"Added the record from the finding of the CRTC.","source":"https://web.archive.org/web/2026id_/https://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2021/2021-403.htm","editor":"AIBD"}],"confidence":"found","shade":"high","claim_status":"Found by a regulator","claim_basis":"Sources: one independent regulatory document, one independent descriptive report and the makers' other source. 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