Efforts to combat a steep rise in phone-based fraud have intensified as leading UK mobile operators and the government commit to new anti-scam measures. The agreement, signed at the BT Tower, forms part of the recently launched Telecoms Charter, which seeks to close loopholes exploited by international scam networks.
This industry-wide pledge comes amid growing pressure on telecom providers to stem the volume of fraudulent calls and messages, many of which impersonate banks, government bodies, or delivery services. As AI technologies accelerate the pace and scale of such crimes, authorities are aiming to modernise response mechanisms and tighten digital defences.
Foreign Call Spoofing to Be Blocked Within a Year
A key component of the new measures is the commitment to eliminate call spoofing from overseas sources within the next 12 months. Under the agreement, signed by BT, EE, Vodafone, Three, Virgin Media O2, Sky, TalkTalk, Tesco Mobile and Comms Council UK, operators will prevent foreign call centres from disguising calls with fake UK numbers.
According to the Home Office, new call tracing technology will enable authorities to follow a call’s origin through multiple network layers, identifying the source provider and stopping fraudulent traffic closer to its point of entry. These tools are also expected to supply law enforcement with intelligence on domestic scam operations.
Lord Hanson, Minister for Fraud, stated that the move would “strip away the tools scammers use to cheat people out of their hard-earned cash”, with the aim of making the UK “the hardest place in the world for scammers to operate”.
Foreign-based spoofed numbers have long been used to trick recipients into thinking a call comes from a trusted source. According to government data, 96% of mobile users judge whether to answer a call based on the number displayed on screen, making spoofing a particularly effective vector for fraud.
Alongside blocking spoofed calls, telecoms firms have also committed to reducing victim support times to a maximum of two weeks, in a bid to accelerate recovery after a scam incident.
AI-Powered Fraud Drives New Risks for Telecom Networks
The decision follows a sharp rise in scams driven by artificial intelligence, with criminals increasingly using deepfake videos, cloned voices and automated scripts to impersonate individuals or institutions. According to fraud detection company Hiya, one in four UK consumers received a deepfake voice call in the past year, with average victim losses exceeding £13,000.
Virgin Media O2 recently reported having blocked over one billion fake texts so far this year, while BT claims its systems now stop approximately three million scam calls daily. Despite these efforts, figures from UK Finance show more than £629 million was stolen in the first half of 2025, an increase of 3% over the same period last year.
Investment and romance scams accounted for a large share of that total, with respective losses of nearly £100 million and £20 million. These frauds often rely on emotional manipulation or promises of high returns, typically facilitated through fake identities and cloned digital content.
The newly introduced measures build on a broader plan for change already being implemented by the government, which includes collaboration with the US to disrupt foreign scam operations based in Southeast Asia.
According to Ofcom, additional regulatory proposals are under review to block scam texts more effectively. These include mandatory due diligence for new business message senders, limits on pay-as-you-go SIM volumes, and tighter filtering of suspicious traffic at the network level.
While telecoms providers stress the role of new technologies in fraud prevention, experts warn that upgrades alone won’t suffice. UK Finance has highlighted that AI allows criminals to scale traditional tactics across languages and channels more effectively than ever before.
Efforts to counter AI-enabled fraud will require long-term cooperation between government, industry, regulators and the public, ensuring not only technical resilience but also greater public awareness and faster response mechanisms.
