Ofcom UK probe Vonage and Voxbone after scammers misuse phone numbers

The UK telecoms and media regulator, Ofcom, has today opened two separate investigations into cloud and VoIP phone providers Vonage (Vonage Business Limited) and Voxbone SA – here and here, which centres on a concern that telephone numbers held by the companies are being “misused, including to perpetrate scams“.

Readers might recall that Ofcom launched an enforcement programme in 2024 to ensure that UK telephone and text companies were using phone numbers efficiently and effectively. This formed a complementary part of their effort to strengthen existing rules against the use of “fake phone numbers” and “spoofed calls“.

Ofcom typically allocates telephone numbers, usually in large blocks, to telecoms firms, which can then transfer those numbers to individuals or other businesses as their customers. But providers that take on such numbers are held to various rules, which are designed to help prevent those numbers being abused by end-customers. “Misuse of numbers could, for example, include using them to facilitate scam calls and texts“, said Ofcom.

Both of the new investigations fall under the regulator’s aforementioned enforcement programme, looking specifically at phone and text scams.

Ofcom Statement

In order for phone companies to tackle misuse of numbers, we expect them, among other things, to carry out ‘know your customer’ due diligence checks on their business customers to prevent scammers from accessing valid numbers in the first place. Additionally, they should keep the level of risk posed by a business customer under review by monitoring for potential number misuse and respond proactively to any incidents of misuse that are reported to them.

We have gathered information which has raised concerns about the use of numbers allocated to Vonage Business Limited and Voxbone SA. Specifically, our investigations will seek to establish whether both companies have complied with the relevant requirements of General Condition B1, including obligations relating to the effective and efficient use of numbers, and the steps taken to oversee their use.

We will gather further information and provide an update on these two investigations in due course. Should we have reasonable grounds to suspect that any other companies have broken our rules we may launch further investigations which will be published on our enforcement bulletin page.

Such investigations typically take a long time to complete and so we don’t expect to see an outcome from this until next year, probably around late spring 2027 or maybe even later than that. The regulator rarely launches a formal investigation unless they have enough evidence or reason to do so. Ofcom could well end up imposing a fine and or requiring various process changes, depending upon their findings.