In an era where voice calls still hold a significant place, a rising wave of voice fraud threatens to shatter this trust. With a shocking 16% of UK consumers falling victim to phone scams last year, global figures paint a worrisome picture. The fact that this issue is not fleeting, the average UK consumer receiving roughly four fraudulent calls per month in 2023, only heightens the concerns.
As the UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, prepares revised regulations that will hold telecom companies to a higher standard, the UK operator BT is stepping up its efforts to fight scammers. In order to achieve this goal, Hiya Protect, a network-level monitoring system that can detect and reject suspicious calls, will be used by the company. This technology will be available to both fixed-line and mobile EE subscribers. According to a study done by the Hiya team, 29 percent of all phone calls in the UK are spam. 50 percent of those calls are fraudulent, making the UK the most fraudulent country in Europe. This demonstrates the scope of the problem, which affects a vast number of people in the UK. Naturally, Ofcom is aware of this problem. According to calculations made by the telco regulator, a quarter of UK adults dealt with at least one instance of suspicious…
