Canadians Can Now Block Scam Calls and Texts on iPhone With NordVPN

NordVPN’s message protection is now available on iPhone, screening texts from unknown senders and flagging scams before you tap anything. That’s according to NordVPN, which announced on Monday it’s also bringing HangUp, its free call-blocking app, to iOS. Both were Android-only until now.

Message protection lives inside the NordVPN app next to scam call protection, which warns you about likely fraudulent incoming calls. Together they make up NordVPN’s call and message protection, all managed from one screen. It lands as scam texts and calls keep hitting Canadians, like the phone-return scam on Vancouver Island.

How Message Protection Works

Each SMS from an unknown number gets checked against phone reputation data, URL analysis and content categorization. If something looks suspicious, you get a push notification naming the threat and what to do next. Flagged texts open in a safe view so you can’t tap a link by accident, and a dashboard shows what’s been caught. NordVPN says it doesn’t store the content of any calls or messages.

You can turn it on during install or later from the Product hub in the app. It then runs in the background whether the VPN is on or off.

“People get a lot of messages in a day. Delivery notices, bank alerts, codes, reminders. When they all look alike it gets hard to tell which one is real,” Domininkas Virbickas, product director at NordVPN, said in a statement to iPhone in Canada.

To turn on message protection, install the latest NordVPN app on your iPhone, then open the products screen. From there, select “Call and message protection”, switch it on, and follow the setup steps, allowing any permissions it asks for along the way.

HangUp Is Free

HangUp screens calls in real time and shows who’s calling before you answer. Calls get sorted into categories like scam, telemarketing, survey, debt collection or fraud, and you can block entire categories so those calls never ring. A call log shows what was blocked and why, and you can report numbers to help improve detection.

The app doesn’t need a NordVPN subscription or even the NordVPN app. All you need is a free Nord account, there are no trials, and it’s on the App Store now. A free spam blocker that isn’t trying to upsell you on day one is a nice change.

With so many scam calls and texts going around, this might be worth looking into especially on the iPhones of those that aren’t tech-savvy enough to avoid scammers.