Consultation: Tackling scam calls from abroad

To protect people and businesses from scam calls, we are proposing to amend our guidance to set out how we expect providers to process calls from abroad that appear to come from UK mobile (+447) numbers.

Protecting consumers from the harms caused by scam phone calls is a priority for Ofcom. Scammers use a range of channels to try to reach potential victims, including social media, online communications services such as WhatsApp, number-based mobile messages, and telephone calls. Scammers may also move between channels. However, the ability to make phone calls is important to scammers: calls can reach anyone with a phone number, and they can facilitate personalised interaction, which in turn can enable scammers to build trust more easily and to manipulate potential victims.

One common tactic that scammers use to try to get victims to engage with their calls is to ‘spoof’ phone numbers, to disguise the origin of the call and to appear more trustworthy. This increases the likelihood that potential victims will answer the call. The scammer can then try to manipulate the recipient into giving away personal details, such as passwords or one-time codes, or to make payments.

As part of our joined-up strategy to tackle fraud and scams across all the services we regulate (both online and telecoms), we have already implemented measures to make it more difficult for scammers to reach people and businesses with calls that spoof UK landline numbers. These include setting out the steps operators are expected to take to identify calls from abroad that are spoofing UK landline numbers and to block them.

Our rules and guidance set out what is expected of providers for the display of Calling Line Identification (CLI) data (signals that show the point of origin of the call and/or the identity of the caller). In 2024, we further strengthened our CLI Guidance to reflect that we expect providers to identify and block calls from abroad that use a UK number as a Presentation Number (the number that the call recipient may see), except in a limited number of legitimate use cases.

Our CLI Guidance does not currently address the problem of inbound international calls that spoof UK mobile (+447) numbers. This is because it specifically sets out an exemption from blocking for calls from abroad which are made with a UK mobile CLI from a +44 range. One of the reasons for this exemption is to allow UK mobile users roaming abroad to display their number to friends and family in the UK when they call them.

In 2024, we published a call for input that set out the potential options for identifying and blocking spoofed UK mobile numbers. We have now opened a consultation which builds on our programme of work to reduce the harm that scam calls cause to people and businesses.

We are proposing changes to our CLI Guidance, on how providers should process calls from abroad that appear to present a UK mobile number, to protect people and businesses from spoofing.