T-Mobile is rolling out free features to help you ward off scammers and robocalls

• T-Mobile is offering free services to customers to help them ward off spam and robocalls.
• The spam-blocking features will allow subscribers to block suspicious callers, use a second phone number to keep their primary one secure, and change their number if they begin to receive too many spam calls.
• The services will be free for customers across the T-Mobile, Sprint, and Metro networks.

T-Mobile says it's doing even more to crack down on robocalls.

The cell phone carrier, which also owns Metro and Sprint, is arming its subscribers across all three networks with free tools to help ward off spam calls, according to a press release.

Dubbed Scam Shield, the initiative will give customers an option to turn on a spam-blocking, which will block calls that appear suspicious, and will feature improved caller ID capabilities. It will also offer the option of using a second phone number to keep your primary one more secure and make it easier to change your number if you believe you're receiving too many spam calls.

Robocalls have become a major annoyance for the wireless network industry. Americans were hit with more than 58 billion robocalls in 2019 and almost 23 billion in 2020 so far, according to YouMail. A 2019 insight report from Truecaller, a mobile app that lets you see and block callers, found that phone scams finagled $10 billion out of Americans in early 2019 and late 2018.

Some carriers, as Axios notes, charge people for tools that help protect them for spam calls, like Verizon's $8 monthly fee for such protection.