Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: Crime (297 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - Crime

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).

Error message concept. Alert, attention notification. Important reminder

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.

VIDEO Police Catch Three Openreach Broadband Cable Thieves in the Act

22nd January, 2026 (14 Comments)

Bang to rights! The West Midlands Police have a reason to be cheerful today after they arrested a gang of three people who were in the process of trying to steal Openreach’s (BT) copper broadband and phone cables from an underground site in central Birmingham, which most likely caused some significant and costly connectivity problems for locals.

2,500 Lincolnshire UK Premises Offline After Cable Thieves Strike Openreach

21st January, 2026 (8 Comments)

Some 2,500 properties around the village of Moulton Chapel in Lincolnshire (England) are suffering “significant disruption” to their broadband and phone connectivity, which occurred after criminals cut and then stole an unspecified amount of Openreach’s copper telecoms cable in the area.

1,000 UK Broadband Users Warned of “Illegal” TV Streaming by FACT

28th December, 2025 (41 Comments)

The Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) has sent a warning message (via email and text) to over 1,000 broadband internet users in the UK that have been identified as using “illegal TV streaming services“, which calls on them to “immediately cease using illegal TV streaming services or face the risk of prosecution“.

Malicious Fibre Break Disrupts Virgin Media Broadband Near Manchester

12th December, 2025 (45 Comments)

Customers of UK ISP Virgin Media’s broadband network in and around the Manchester area (Burnley) are currently suffering from internet connectivity problems after several fibre optic cables were damaged in the area. A separate cable break also appears to have occurred in the Birmingham area, which has added some further disruption.

Kent-stolen-telecoms-and-broadband-cabinet-batteries-and-tools

Two Charged with Theft of Batteries from UK Broadband Street Cabinets

12th December, 2025 (14 Comments)

Last year we reported that the Kent Police had arrested four people in connection with the theft of batteries from “telecoms boxes” (i.e. street cabinets used by broadband providers), cables and other equipment (here), which caused some areas to lose internet connectivity. Two people have now been charged with 40 offences – Levi Backett (38) and a 15-year-old boy.

Encrypted Computer Data by 123rf ID104712693

New Cyber Security and Resilience Bill Introduced to UK Parliament

12th November, 2025 (5 Comments)

The UK government will today introduce their new Cyber Security and Resilience Bill (CSRB) to parliament, which aims to toughen existing defences against cyberattacks – particularly those that impact the health, energy, water and transport networks – and imposes new requirements on broadband, mobile, managed service providers, data centres and even their suppliers.

Internet and UK Telecoms Security Picture

Ofcom to Boost UK Telecoms Security by Working with Key Countries

6th November, 2025 (3 Comments)

The UK communications, internet and media regulator, Ofcom, has today announced that they’ve agreed to work “more closely” with their counterparts in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The move aims to “strengthen the security and resilience of telecoms networks” and tackle consumer-facing risks from scams and fraud.

Major UK Phone Providers Agree to Crackdown on Scam Calls and Fraud

5th November, 2025 (12 Comments)

A new landmark Telecommunications Charter has today been agreed between several of the UK’s leading broadband, mobile and phone providers, which commits BT (EE), Virgin Media (O2), VodafoneThree, Tesco Mobile, TalkTalk, Sky (Sky Broadband) and the Comms Council UK to a “crack down on scam calls and fraud“. A sub-charter also exists for B2B phone services.

O2 UK Reach Grim Milestone as Mobile Network Blocks 1 Billion Scam Texts

3rd November, 2025 (3 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today revealed that over 1 billion scam text messages have been blocked by their network and prevented from reaching customers. The provider is now calling on the government to ensure that their forthcoming Fraud Strategy helps to tackle this by empowering law enforcement with the tools and resources needed to crackdown on the problem.

Ofcom UK Propose New Rules to Tackle Mobile Messaging Scams

29th October, 2025 (12 Comments)

Ofcom has today announced a “comprehensive package of planned measures” that are designed to improve protection for mobile phone users against messaging scams. According to the regulator, some 50% of UK mobile users said they received a suspicious message between Nov 2024 and Feb 2025 via text or iMessage, but it’s hoped today’s changes may reduce that figure.