Statement: Tackling scam calls from abroad

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

As part of our joined-up strategy to tackle fraud and scams across all the services we regulate (both online and telecoms), we have 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 strengthened our Calling Line Identification (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.

We have further updated our CLI Guidance to set out how we expect providers to process calls from abroad with UK mobile (+447) Presentation Numbers. 

This measure will remove the ability of scammers outside the UK to present a spoofed UK mobile Presentation Number to people and businesses in the UK. This is because no UK provider will be able to verify the validity of these calls and therefore the Presentation Number will appear to the recipient as withheld.