Ofcom's consultation on tackling scam calls from abroad - Which? response

Executive Summary

Which? welcomes this opportunity to respond to Ofcom’s consultation on tackling scam calls from abroad. Ofcom is proposing changes to its guidance, on how providers should process calls from abroad that appear to present a UK mobile number. Ofcom’s proposal is that where providers cannot verify that a call from abroad presenting a UK mobile number is a genuine roaming call, providers should display the call as withheld to the call recipient. Given that some consumers are less likely to pick up a call from a withheld number than they are from an unknown UK mobile number, Ofcom believes that its intervention will reduce the number of phone-enabled scams. 

While Which? agrees with Ofcom that regulatory intervention is necessary in this space, we believe that Ofcom’s proposed solution will leave gaps for fraudsters to exploit. Ofcom’s own data suggest that around 20% of consumers will not be protected by its proposed measure. Although in the short-term technical restrictions might prevent the full scale blocking of calls from abroad which are spoofing UK mobile numbers, we believe that for the longer-term Ofcom should look to implement such a solution, as has been the case in other countries.