Hiya Claims UK is the Worst Place in Europe for Phone Fraud

New data from caller ID verification firm Hiya, which also works with UK broadband ISP BT (EE) to help detect and block SPAM and fraud calls, has today claimed that 28% of non-contact calls in the United Kingdom were identified as spam in 2022. Plus, the UK also comes out as the worst in Europe for “phone fraud“.

Unlike the United States, where most of the unwanted calls are simply nuisance calls, in the UK some 47% of all spam calls were labelled as fraud in Q4. Some scams have been around for years, such as those impersonating Amazon, Banks, HMRC or Amazon, while others are new and related to the rising cost of living. In Q4, Hiya observed a surge in energy related scam calls leading up to an energy rebate that took effect on 1st October.

The data stems from Hiya’s latest Q4 2022 Global Call Threat Report, which found that – during Q4 2022 – some 28% of UK calls from non-contacts were flagged as SPAM (i.e. 72% of calls were wanted). Out of those SPAM calls, 53.3% were nuisance calls (39.3 million of them) and 46.7% (34.5 million) were fraud calls.

The top source of SPAM calls in Q4 came from Amazon impersonators, who may say that they suspect an unauthorized purchase, or that the credit card linked to the account needs to be updated. “They’ll say anything that might get the victim to disclose either the Amazon account number or credit card information,” said Hiya’s report.

“Research has found that people living under financial strain are more likely to be scammed,” said Kush Parikh, President of Hiya. “Cost of living spikes, including skyrocketing energy prices in Europe, are almost certainly to blame for the increase in phone scams over the past months. Worldwide, consumers are drowning in phone spam and fraud, damaging the reputation of telecom carriers.”

Naturally, Hiya has a vested interest in all this, although its findings won’t come as much of a surprise.