Tele2 Group stepped up its fight against fraud and cyberattacks with a telecoms-specific AI targeting the most common scams including spoofing, wangiri and smishing.

The operator’s group security manager Jonas Lindstrom described a landscape of annual fraud attempts against its customers numbering in the millions, with a to-and-fro in terms of Tele2’s moves to combat these as scammers constantly adapt their methods to circumvent security moves.

“When we now implement the latest AI technology, we are the ones who have the initiative for a while to come” Lindstrom said.

Tele2 stated the AI technology was developed specifically for the telecom industry, providing earlier identification of potential fraud attempts.

It employs various data models which are analysed automatically, with instant identification of any deviations. Tele2 stated the AI can process “large amounts of data” in real-time and near real-time, offering a highly accurate picture of “new fraud patterns and threats”.

Tele2 explained it acted following an exponential rise in the number of fraud attempts in recent years. Lindstrom described this as a “major social problem that requires broad cooperation” to tackle.

The Sweden-headquartered operator released details of its system a day after Nordic competitor Telia warned AI itself was opening fresh attack opportunities, a view later echoed by Nokia.

Earlier this year, Telenor CEO Sigve Brekke indicated it had blocked 500 million cyberattacks in Q1 alone.