Fraudsters who pretend to be phoning from a trusted number to trick victims into parting with money are to be blocked.
“Number spoofing”, where technology is used to display falsely that an incoming call is from a bank, company, government department or local number, is a growing problem.
About 700,000 people are estimated to have fallen victim to the scam in the three months to August, Ofcom said. If a call to a mobile or landline phone appears trustworthy, people are more likely to answer it and follow the scammers’ requests, research has shown.
The regulator is now forcing telephone networks to identify and block spoof calls. When they did this voluntarily, it had a big impact. TalkTalk said it had noted a 65 per
