Disclosed are techniques for detecting outlier cells based on positioning of a user equipment (UE). In an aspect, the UE or a location server determines a plurality of cells detectable by the UE, calculates a plurality of location estimates for the UE based on positioning measurements of a corresponding plurality of subsets of the plurality of cells, identifies a subset of cells that provides a best location estimate for the UE, wherein the best location estimate maximizes a set of inlier cells, calculates a final location estimate for the UE based on positioning measurements of the subset of cells and the set of inlier cells, identifies any remaining cells of the plurality of cells other than the subset of cells and the set of inlier cells as at least one outlier cell, and performs a mitigation operation based on identifying the at least one outlier cell.