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Articles for Category Tag - Crime

BT and Openreach Electric Vans PR 090125

Court Fines BT £9K Over Permits and Substandard Roadworks in Cumbria UK UPDATE

22nd October, 2025 (10 Comments)

Broadband and telecoms giant BT (Openreach) has been fined a total of £9,000 at the Barrow Magistrates Court in Cumbria (England) after Westmorland and Furness Council (WFC) brought a successful prosecution against the operator for carrying out roadworks “without permits“, while also “failing to reinstate the road adequately“.

Crossed BT Wires Led to Three Innocent UK People Being Accused of Child Abuse

17th October, 2025 (15 Comments)

A recently published judgement by the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has revealed the disturbing case of how a simple mistake by one of BT’s (Openreach) broadband engineers led to three people, who shared the same house, having their lives turned upside down after they were wrongly accused of child sex offences.

Beaminster Car Crashed into Openreach Pole

Car Crash Knocks Out Openreach Broadband and Pole in Dorset UK Town UPDATE2

16th October, 2025 (23 Comments)

Hundreds of people in the Dorset town of Beaminster have reportedly been left without working broadband and digital phone connectivity for several days after a car crashed into one of Openreach’s telecoms (telegraph) poles in the area and promptly burst into flames. Police are currently still trying to locate the driver, which could suggest a criminal aspect.

Now UK Metal Thieves are Stealing the Shells of Broadband Cabinets UPDATE

13th October, 2025 (14 Comments)

The saying goes that criminals will steal anything that isn’t bolted down, but the opposite now seems to be true in Nottinghamshire (England), where a spate of recent metal thefts has seen criminals making off with the steel covers from several of Virgin Media’s (O2) broadband and phone street cabinets.

Cable Thieves Knock Out Openreach Broadband in County Durham Village

9th October, 2025 (3 Comments)

Broadband internet connectivity across part of the County Durham (England) village of Shotton Colliery was left disconnected for five days earlier this week after Openreach’s local network was targeted by copper cable thieves. The activity also caused damage to some local fibre optic cables.

Scam Alert UK Finger on Computer Keyboard Warning

Virgin Media O2 UK Claims 1.8 Million over-65s Have Fallen for Online Scams

7th October, 2025 (7 Comments)

Broadband and mobile giant Virgin Media and O2 has this morning published new research, which claims to reveal that more than 1.8 million people over the age of 65 have been scammed online in the past year, with the average victim losing £831. In response, they’re launching a free Scam Schools programme with sessions “across the UK” to help Brits get safer online.

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Broadband Disrupted Near Durham UK After Vandals Cut Fibre Optic Cables

2nd October, 2025 (13 Comments)

A number of homes, businesses and several network operators, including Netomnia (Youfibre, Brsk) and Openreach (BT), were impacted yesterday outside the City of Durham after vandals gained access to a chamber and cut vital fibre optic cables; disrupting local broadband connectivity for a protracted period.

Internet Danger Websites with Scam Ads and Malware

Ofcom Warn UK People to Watch for Scammers Impersonating the Regulator

25th September, 2025 (4 Comments)

The UK telecoms and media regulator, Ofcom, has warned consumers that fraudsters are attempting to impersonate them. In short, some people have received calls from scammers, which claim that services (e.g. broadband, phone etc.) have been fraudulently taken out in their name, when this is not the case.

Beware Email Scams Seeking Feedback on the UK’s Emergency Alerts Test

16th September, 2025 (2 Comments)

The recent nationwide mobile test of the UK’s new Emergency Alerts service has, perhaps inevitably, been followed by a new wave of email phishing scams and spams over the past week. This attempts to impersonate the government by claiming to seek feedback from recipients on whether or not they received the alert.

O2 UK Warns of New Scam Texts as Network Blocks 600 Million Messages

4th September, 2025 (2 Comments)

Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today revealed that they’ve blocked more than 600 million scam text messages from reaching their customers phones so far in 2025 (more than double the number in 2023 and 2024 combined). But the operator warns that they’ve seen a “significant rise” in gambling, recruitment and car finance scam texts.

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Openreach Trial Panic Alarms for UK Broadband Engineers as Abuse Rises

2nd August, 2025 (18 Comments)

Network access provider Openreach (BT) has begun to trial panic alarms for their staff after revealing that UK engineers reported 450 incidents of abuse and assault in the year to the end of March 2025, which is up 8% in the last year and represents a shocking 40% increase when compared with 2022-23. Other providers have seen a similar trend.

Ofcom UK to Restrict Number Spoofing to Tackle Mobile Scam Calls from Abroad

21st July, 2025 (15 Comments)

The UK internet content and telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today proposed changes that will require phone providers to withhold the Caller ID (CLI) of calls that appear to come from a UK mobile roaming abroad unless they can verify its validity. The goal is to tackle scam calls by cracking down on number “spoofing“.

Cornwall UK Police Warn Teenagers NOT to Climb Mobile Masts – Obviously

7th July, 2025 (2 Comments)

The Falmouth and Helston Police (FHP) in Cornwall yesterday had to deal with another contender for the Darwin Awards after they warned that several teenagers had been spotted scaling to the top of a mobile network mast at Breageside, Porthleven – nearly becoming an example of natural selection at work.

UK Government Confirms Europe-first Ban on SIM Farms

24th April, 2025 (18 Comments)

The UK government has today confirmed its intent to ban SIM Farms (both possession and supply) some 6 months after the new Crime and Policing Bill (CPB) receives Royal Assent. The move is designed to better protect the public from fraudsters and scammers who also use the devices for criminal purposes (e.g. sending scam/spam messages and calls to mobile users).

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Ofcom Confirm Ban of Global Titles to Tackle Abuse of UK Mobile Networks

22nd April, 2025 (3 Comments)

The national telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has today confirmed that it will ban UK phone operators from leasing Global Titles (GTs) – numbers like +44 (for the United Kingdom) that support mobile services – to third parties. Sadly, such leasing can be misused to try and intercept messages and calls, disrupt the operation of networks and track the location of users of other networks.

Home Phone and UK Broadband VoIP Services

Ofcom UK Probe Primo Dialler Over Possible Misuse of Phone Numbers

14th April, 2025 (3 Comments)

The UK telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, has today opened a new investigation into call centre solutions’ provider Primo Dialler, which will examine “concerns that numbers sub-allocated to [the company] are/were being misused, including to facilitate scams.”

Man Arrested for Knocking Out Openreach’s Broadband in Falmouth UPDATE

8th April, 2025 (5 Comments)

The Devon & Cornwall Police (DCP) in England have arrested a man in his 30s on suspicion of causing criminal damage to Openreach’s broadband network in the town of Falmouth over the weekend. The incident knocked out local internet connectivity to around 100 premises (inc. many local businesses) and could cost up to £100,000 to repair.