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Articles for Category Tag - Crime

Copper Cable Thieves Knock Out Broadband Near St Neots for a Third Time

7th August, 2026 (4 Comments)

A criminal gang has, for a third time since the start of last year (see here and here), this week disrupted Openreach’s broadband services around part of the Cambridgeshire (England) town of St Neots by stealing 500 metres worth of the UK network operator’s local copper telecoms cables.

Error message concept. Alert, attention notification. Important reminder

Ofcom Rejected More Effective Method of Blocking UK Messaging Scams

17th July, 2026 (3 Comments)

Earlier this week Ofcom introduced new measures to help UK mobile operators “block, limit and disrupt scammers” from sending messaging scams (here). The changes, while positive, overlooked the fact that the regulator ended up rejecting an already adopted (in other countries) and UK developed fix that would have been more effective, partly due to BT and others complaining that it would be too “onerous“.

Internet Danger Websites with Scam Ads and Malware

Cifas Joins Global Signal Exchange to Help UK Telecoms Providers Tackle Scams

16th July, 2026 (0 Comments)

The UK’s fraud prevention service, Cifas, which is home to over 775 members including major telecoms providers such as Virgin Media and O2 (VMO2), BT, Sky Broadband and more, has joined the Global Signal Exchange (GSE) to “strengthen the global fight against” online scams by collaborating to identify, disrupt, and prevent online scams at scale across borders and sectors.

Virgin Media O2 Publish First Quarterly Scam Index to Track UK Scam Calls and Texts

15th July, 2026 (0 Comments)

Broadband and mobile operator VMO2 (Virgin Media and O2) have today decided to complement Ofcom’s new anti-scam rules for telecoms providers (here) by publishing their first quarterly Scam Index, which among other things reveals that more than 18.5 million adults in the UK have been targeted by scammers in just three months.

Ofcom Introduce New UK Rules to Tackle Mobile Messaging Scams UPDATE

15th July, 2026 (7 Comments)

The UK internet content, telecoms and media regulator, Ofcom, has this morning published a “comprehensive package of practical measures” to help UK mobile network operators “block, limit and disrupt scammers” from sending messaging scams. In addition, they’ve strengthened rules to help protect people from international calls that imitate – or “spoof” – UK mobile numbers.

VodafoneThree Sign Outside UK Office Building in June 2025

VodafoneThree Blocks over 2 Million UK Banking Sector Fraud Attempts

6th July, 2026 (1 Comment)

Mobile and broadband operator VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK) has today announced that a new collaboration with the banking sector has helped to block more than 2 million fraud attempts since August 2025. The trial is said to have resulted in a 25% increase in banking scam messages being blocked on the mobile giant’s UK network.

O2 UK Warns Mobile Customers Over New Inactive SIM Scam

30th June, 2026 (2 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has warned customers that fraudsters are using a “new” phishing tactic to steal their private personal and security details (i.e. granting them access to their MyO2 accounts), which involves criminals posing as the telecoms company while claiming that the customers’ SIM cards are about to expire.

Serious Fraud Office Investigates Internet Mobile Communications Ltd

23rd June, 2026 (1 Comment)

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has announced that they’re investigating a UK-based telecoms services provider called Internet Mobile Communications Limited (aka – Bank of Telecom) over allegations of “suspected fraud, false accounting, and money laundering“. The company collapsed into administration back in June 2024.

Openreach, Crimestoppers and EMR to Tackle UK Copper Broadband Cable Theft

21st May, 2026 (6 Comments)

Network operator Openreach (BT) and existing charity partner Crimestoppers have today announced that they’ve joined forces with a global leader in metal recycling, EMR, to help combat the rising tide of copper telecoms cable theft on their national broadband and phone network. Total Metal Theft is said to have costed the UK economy £4.3bn in the past decade.

mobile wireless signal disconnected uk by 123rf

Ofcom Prep New UK Telecoms Security Reporting Rules for Mobile Networks

12th May, 2026 (0 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today proposed changes to “improve the consistency of security compromise incident reporting” (i.e. when broadband or mobile networks are disrupted by cyberattacks). The changes will, for example, change how outages are reported for mobile networks in rural areas, which recognises that outages in urban and rural areas affect users differently.

Three Copper Broadband Cable Thieves in Birmingham Jailed for 3 Years

2nd May, 2026 (7 Comments)

At the start of 2026 we reported on how West Midlands Police had arrested a gang of three men who were in the process of trying to steal Openreach’s (BT) copper UK broadband and phone cables – worth £50k – from an underground site in central Birmingham (here). Yesterday the Birmingham Crown Court jailed each one for 3 years.

Ogi-2024-engineers-repairing-network-damage-in-Wales

Court Sentences Attacker for Damaging Ogi’s UK Full Fibre Broadband Network

29th April, 2026 (10 Comments)

The Swansea Crown Court (SCC) has sentenced a 37-year-old man to 16-months in custody (suspended for 2 years) after he was found guilty of conducting “targeted attacks” against Ogi’s full fibre (FTTP) broadband network in Pembrokeshire during the start of 2024, which left nearby homes and businesses disconnected for several days.

mobile network masts four uk 4g 5g by 123rf

Two Men in Northern Ireland Charged Over 5G Mobile Mast Attacks

28th April, 2026 (4 Comments)

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have charged two men – one aged 45 and the other aged 46 – with committing a series of arson attacks on 5G mobile network masts, occurring predominantly in the west Belfast area between 2023 and 2025.

Scam Alert UK Finger on Computer Keyboard Warning

Bitdefender Warns EE UK Customers of Reward Points SCAM Texts

25th March, 2026 (0 Comments)

Network security giant Bitdefender has issued a notice to customers of EE’s broadband and mobile services (as well as some non-customers), which cautions them to be on the lookout for fraudulent text messages (SMS) about expiring “reward points“. The dead giveaway here is that the provider doesn’t actually have a reward points (loyalty) scheme.

Virgin Media O2 Harness AI to Flag 1 Billion Suspected SCAM and SPAM Calls

6th March, 2026 (5 Comments)

Mobile and broadband operator VMO2 (Virgin Media and O2) have today revealed that they’ve used AI technologies, such as Call Defence from Hiya, to flag over 1 billion “suspected” scam and spam calls to UK customers before they even pick up the phone (more than 70 million suspected scam and spam calls are currently being flagged every month).

UK Mobile Operators Blocked 97.1 Million Scam SMS Messages in Jan 2026

12th February, 2026 (5 Comments)

Industry trade body Mobile UK, which represents EE, O2 and VodafoneThree (Vodafone and Three UK), has revealed that mobile operators have, to date, blocked an overall total of 2.7 billion scam SMS (text) messages (2,761,912,183 to be exact) from reaching customers and 97.1 Million of that total occurred in January 2026 alone.

Openreach 2025 Engineers looking at tablet

Openreach Rolls Out New Safety App to Help Protect UK Broadband Engineers

2nd February, 2026 (13 Comments)

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has today announced the launch of a new mobile safety app to help combat a surge in abuse and assaults on its UK telecoms engineers. Since April last year, there’s been around 700 incidents of either physical or verbal assaults and threats, including some cases where people have needed time off work to recover.