How to Block Spam Calls on T-Mobile: Scam Shield, #662# and Scam Block Explained

Scam Shield in one paragraph

Scam Shield is the umbrella name for T-Mobile's free anti-robocall features. Scam ID analyzes every call coming into the T-Mobile network and labels the ones it believes are scams as "Scam Likely" on your screen — that part is on for everyone, no app required. Scam Block goes one step further and stops those calls before your phone rings; it is off by default because it will occasionally block a legitimate caller, and you turn it on yourself. Caller ID for numbers not in your contacts is free on postpaid plans. And the PROXY line gives you a second phone number to hand out to shops, forms and sign-ups so your real number stays out of marketing databases. T-Mobile describes the current package on its Scam Shield page.

Because the scoring happens in T-Mobile's network, it applies whichever phone you use and whichever carrier the caller is on. The label is based on the calling pattern behind the number — volume, velocity, how many people hang up, how the call is authenticated under STIR/SHAKEN, what other customers have reported — not on the number's area code. Our companion guide to what 'Scam Likely' means explains how the score is built and why real businesses sometimes get labeled.

Turn on Scam Block (three ways)

• Dial #662# from your T-Mobile phone and press call. You will get a confirmation that Scam Block is on. Dial #632# to turn it off again, and #787# to check the current status. This works on any phone, including basic phones, and needs no app.
• In the Scam Shield app (iOS and Android), open the Activity or Settings tab and toggle Scam Block on. The app also shows what was blocked, lets you report numbers and manages your PROXY line.
• In the T-Life app or your T-Mobile account on the web, open the line's settings, find Scam Shield / Scam Block and switch it on per line. This is the way to protect a family member's phone from your own account.

Once Scam Block is on, calls T-Mobile scores as scams are rejected in the network. They do not ring, do not go to voicemail, and do not appear in your phone's call log — they appear in the Scam Shield app's blocked-call history instead. If you are expecting a call from an organization that sometimes gets mislabeled (a clinic's outbound line, a school district's dialer), check that history when the call does not arrive, and mark it "Not a scam" to allow the number.

Scam ID's label, by contrast, is informational. A "Scam Likely" call rings normally; the label is there so you can decline it. If you would rather not think about it, Scam Block is the setting that removes the decision.

Block a specific number or a whole category

For one persistent caller, block it on the phone: iPhone → tap the (i) next to the call in Recents → Block this Caller; Android → long-press the call in the Phone app → Block/report spam. T-Mobile's Scam Shield app also lets you block a number from its call activity list so the block happens in the network. Check the number first with a reverse lookup — a number with dozens of FTC Do Not Call complaints in the last 30 days is a campaign and the block is right; a clean local number may be someone who misdialed.

Category blocking (send all telemarketing, or all political calls, or all survey calls to voicemail) and a reverse-lookup tool for unknown numbers are part of Scam Shield Premium, T-Mobile's paid add-on. Premium also adds voicemail-to-text and lets you set a personal "always block" list that survives phone changes. If most of your unwanted calls carry the "Scam Likely" label already, free Scam Block covers you; Premium is for the gray zone of legal-but-unwanted telemarketing.

For junk texts, forward the message to 7726 (SPAM) — T-Mobile uses those reports to tune its messaging filters — then block the sender. Never reply "STOP" to a text you did not sign up for; for scam texts it confirms a live number. See our guide to the "wrong number" text scam.

PROXY number and a free number change

T-Mobile's PROXY feature, managed in the Scam Shield app, gives you a second US number on the same phone through T-Mobile's DIGITS service. Give the PROXY number to anything likely to leak — loyalty programs, online forms, marketplaces, a listing you are selling from — and keep your real number for people. When the PROXY number starts attracting robocalls, you can silence it or replace it without touching the number your family and your bank know.

If your real number is already burned — on every list, spoofed, receiving a dozen robocalls a day — T-Mobile allows one free number change a year under Scam Shield. Weigh it carefully: a new number is disruptive and can be picked up by autodialers within weeks (robocall systems dial number ranges, not lists), and if the problem is that your number is being *displayed* by a spam campaign rather than called, a change does not help. Our spoofed-number guide covers that case.

Metro by T-Mobile, Mint and other T-Mobile network brands

Metro by T-Mobile customers get Scam ID and Scam Block free, using the same #662# code, plus a Scam Shield app of their own; Premium is available as an add-on. Prepaid brands that run on T-Mobile's network (Mint Mobile, Google Fi in part, many smaller MVNOs) inherit the network's Scam Likely labeling in most cases, but the extra controls depend on the brand — check the brand's help pages, and if there is no network-level block, use the phone-level tools in our iPhone and Android guides.

Whatever the brand, the two things that work everywhere are the National Do Not Call Registry — register once, and legitimate telemarketers must stop within 31 days — and reporting the calls that still arrive at DoNotCall.gov or ReportFraud.ftc.gov. The FTC publishes those complaints daily; they are the data behind the complaint history on every number page here.

Sources

1. T-Mobile — Scam Shield
2. FCC — Call Blocking Tools and Resources
3. FTC — National Do Not Call Registry

Related

• What 'Scam Likely' means
• Block spam calls on Verizon
• Block spam calls on AT&T
• How to stop robocalls
• Top reported US numbers

FAQs