BT Names the UK Top 5 Worst Nuisance Callers as 2 Million Adopt Call Protect
It’s been three months since BT introduced their free ‘Call Protect‘ service to tackle nuisance calls (here) and some 2 million homes across the United Kingdom are now using it. The broadband ISP has also published a table of the top 5 worst nuisance callers for March 2017.
The Call Protect system works by using powerful computers to analyse large amounts of live data, enabling BT’s network team in Oswestry to identify rogue numbers (i.e. those that make enormous numbers of calls) and add them to a special blacklist. Customers can also help by identifying troublesome numbers to the system or creating their own personal blacklist.
The provider estimates that, since its launch, Call Protect has reduced the number of nuisance calls reaching customers by diverting 65% of those calls into its junk voicemail box. In addition, customers are making more than 80,000 calls a week to the service’s 1572 number in order to add calls, check voicemail or change settings etc.
Top 5 Worst UK Nuisance Callers (4-11th March 2017)
| Categories | Volume | Proportion | |
| 1 | Accident claims | 12,211,599 | 41% |
| 2 | Personal details (Scam) | 5,439,781 | 18.50% |
| 3 | PPI | 1,892,479 | 6.40% |
| 4 | Computer scam | 3,593,103 | 12.60% |
| 5 | Debt collection | 2,212,713 | 7.50% |
| Other | 4,131,102 | 14% | |
| Total | 29,480,477 |
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.
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I’m guessing that as recipient network for the call, there’s some slight chance that BT gets paid for the millions of minutes of junk calls diverted into its junk voicemail ‘bit bin’…
I’m not going to deny them the cash – to be frank I am glad that whoever is making the calls is paying some fee for doing it, and presumably once a number has been verified as a junk caller, the calls made are diverted immediately to this voicemail system, so they’re not getting ‘engaged’ or ‘ringing’ but get charged for every call they make.