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.
Ofcom, the UK’s telecom regulator, wields new measures to curb fraudulent calls and misuse of Calling Line Identification data internationally. This initiative directly targets scammers exploiting loopholes to feign UK numbers. While exceptions exist for legitimate overseas use, maintaining the balance without obstructing genuine calls is an imperative yet challenging pursuit.
In a groundbreaking move against the scourge of robocallers, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced a historic forfeiture of $300 million, showcasing their unwavering commitment to tackling the issue head-on. However, the question of when this record penalty will actually be paid remains an uncertainty.
In a collective effort to combat the rampant issue of scam calls, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) joined forces with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), state attorneys general, and various state and federal agencies to announce “Operation Stop Scam Calls” on July 18. This initiative brought together 102 participants, resulting in a total of 180 enforcement actions taken at the state and federal levels.
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…
YouMail released a new robocall warning, saying that utility-related impostor robocalls are posing a concern to Americans. These utility scam calls claiming to be from major American gas, electric, and other utilities in order to swindle unwary victims by threatening them with instant disconnection if their “utility bills” are not paid quickly. The specifics of the scam calls differ, but they typically claim that the user’s service is going to be terminated and that they need to click a key to make a payment or speak to someone at the business. Some calls are made from an entirely random phone number and mention a generic firm name. Others link to certain departments by using a local phone number with the recipient’s area code. Some of them utilize a spoofed caller ID from a well-known utility business. Apparently, these con artists are seeking to exploit the growing number of…
Robocalls threaten people’s privacy and tarnish the reputation of the telecoms industry by subjecting subscribers to unwanted and intrusive telemarketing and scam practices. In 2021, American customers received an estimated 50,507,702,500 robocalls, which is nearly 10% more than the 45.9 billion robocalls received in 2020. YouMail, a free robocall prevention program and call protection service for mobile phones, provided the most recent statistics. Americans received nearly 3.6 billion robocalls in December 2021 alone, with an average of 115.1 million calls each day and 1,332 calls every second. Scam calls declined by 4% in December, while telemarketing calls decreased by 18%, payment reminders decreased by 18%, and alerts and reminders decreased by 11%. On the whole, the scam category topped the list for the year, accounting for about 30 billion scam or spam calls, or slightly under 60% of all calls, a sizable amount of presumably unwelcome calls. While…
Nokia inks a 5G deal with Elisa Estonia Elisa Estonia, a subsidiary of Elisa Finland, has selected Nokia for a national 5G RAN deployment, as well as the replacement of current 4G infrastructure in a five-year arrangement. On completion of Estonia’s spectrum auction in early 2022, deployment is planned to begin in the following year. Nokia will supply Elisa with equipment from its newest ReefShark System on the chip-powered AirScale equipment portfolio, which will cover the nation’s countrywide radio network. Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/y4bvm323 BT announces the creation of a Clinical Advisory Board BT has announced the formation of a Clinical Advisory Board, which will be made up of experienced healthcare experts. The aim of this initiative is to help drive the development of innovative, connected healthcare solutions that will improve results and experiences for the NHS and their patients. The professionals will contribute decades of expertise and deep knowledge…
