Six of the UK’s largest telecom providers have announced a joint initiative to eliminate phone number “spoofing” within the next 12 months in a major step to protect consumers from fraud. The move will prevent criminals, particularly from overseas call centres, from disguising their calls as coming from legitimate UK numbers.
The agreement, known as the Second Telecommunications Fraud Charter, is being signed by BT/EE, Virgin Media O2, Vodafone, Three, Tesco Mobile, TalkTalk, and Sky, along with the Comms Council UK (CCUK) and the UK government. The companies will roll out advanced technology to enhance the security, traceability, and reliability of their networks, ensuring it becomes clear when a call originates from outside the country.
This coordinated effort follows Ofcom’s directive requiring providers to block all international calls falsely displaying UK landline numbers. The telecom firms are also collaborating with the regulator to develop a call-tracing process to pinpoint the origin of suspicious calls.
Government officials hailed the move as a key step in fighting telecom fraud. Home Office Minister David Hanson said the upgrade will “strip away the tools scammers use to cheat people out of their hard-earned cash.” Virgin Media O2’s fraud prevention head, Murray Mackenzie, noted that cross-industry cooperation is vital to “stop scams, disrupt organised gangs, and help people protect themselves.”