Hiya – Spam Phone Calls Declined in the UK During H1 2024
The latest H1 2024 data from caller ID verification firm Hiya, which also works with broadband ISPs BT (EE) and Virgin Media (O2) to help detect and block SPAM and fraud calls, has revealed that residents of the UK received only 3 spam calls per person each month (down from 4 at the same time last year) – one of the lowest rates in Europe.
Overall, the latest report found that 3% of all UK calls were classified as “fraud calls” (down from 9.3% in H1 2023), while 25% were “nuisance calls” (up from 18%) and the remaining 72% reflected all other (normal) calls – this reflects a spam flag rate of 28% (up from 27.3%). In other words, fewer spam/scam calls are making it past the network-level filtering systems being adopted by various phone providers.
The top sources of scam calls in H1 2023 once again came from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) impersonators, which was followed by those trying to impersonate Amazon and Credit Card companies (i.e. Visa, Mastercard and other credit card companies).
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The number of spam or scam calls you’re likely to receive depends a lot on where you live and how much effort has been put into tackling the problem. For example, Germans get just 2 calls per month, while Brazilians endure 26!
In the UK, Ofcom has recently moved to force mobile and fixed line phone providers into adopting stricter measures against “Presentation Numbers” that are used to identify who is making a call, but this won’t be introduced until Spring 2025 (here).
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 X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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3 spam calls a month? I had that many this week.
The quality is definitely getting worse. One was pretending to be a mobile phone company I don’t use and the other two a mixture of poor call quality and poor English means I have no idea what they were even trying to sell.
They all identified with overseas numbers though so it does open up the opportunity of blocking all such numbers.
Perhaps scammers are getting fed up getting made fun of by the likes of Kitboga and Scammer Payback on YouTube.
I miss them, you must be getting my share – I haven’t had one in months. I find it amusing trying to decipher what they are saying. Let them say their piece (if you can understand them) and shoot them down in flames when they want any info or to go to a website to install software. They were displaying UK No.s though.
I’ve had a lot less spam calls recently, but way way more spam messages. Like a 10x increase in the last 2 months.
I’ve got an ex-Directory Central London number on a VOIP service and I usually get one spam call a year. What am I missing out on?
The last spam call I did get I wasted a good 20mins of their time playing them along.
“Your Sky broadband is slow and failing, I can increase the speed”. But I’m not with Sky. “It doesn’t matter – Sky provide broadband for all of the U.K. You need to go to this website….”
Thinks Oh Boy I’m going to enjoy this