Scam phone calls are surging: the tactics to know

Nuisance and scam calls to UK mobiles have risen sharply. ICO figures show complaints about unwanted robocalls hit their highest level since 2021, and nuisance calls to mobiles rose by more than 170% between May and October, from 1,923 to 5,202. Landline spam calls, by contrast, stayed broadly flat. Separate monitoring by trueCall found that more than one in three calls to its users in September was flagged as nuisance or suspicious.

This isn't a single incident. It's a shift in volume, and the tactics behind it are consistent enough to learn.

What this actually means for you

You are statistically more likely than before to get a call that isn't what it claims to be. That doesn't mean every call is a scam, most nuisance calls are telemarketing or unwanted sales, not fraud. But fraudulent calls are mixed in among them, and Which?'s scam-tracking tool logged over 1,400 fraudulent calls in a year, with victims reporting more than £241,000 stolen between them. The largest sums came from cryptocurrency schemes, fake product offers and bogus 'fraud recovery' services.

The calls work because they borrow trust from real organisations. Here are the patterns currently being reported:

Bank impersonation. Callers claim to be from a bank or card fraud team, sometimes naming Barclays, HSBC, John Lewis Financial Services, Lloyds or Visa, and reference a made-up transaction at a retailer such as Amazon or Currys. They ask you to press 1 or approve something in your banking app. A genuine bank fraud team will never ask you to approve a payment over the phone to 'cancel' one.

'Can you hear me?' A simple question designed to get you to say yes, which confirms your number is live and may capture a voice sample.

Fake job offers. Pre-recorded calls offering flexible or part-time work, then asking you to move the conversation to WhatsApp or another encrypted app.

Telecom impersonation. Callers posing as EE, O2, Sky or Three claim your SIM has been compromised, or offer a bill discount, as a way to get into your account.

Energy and smart meter scams. Callers posing as British Gas, EDF or E.on Next claim a smart meter fault to extract bank details, or pose as 'local energy advisers' selling insulation or solar panels.

Boiler room investment scams. Callers offer to buy shares above market value, then demand an upfront fee to 'release' the funds, sometimes backed by convincing paperwork.

Delivery and customs scams. Robocalls impersonating DHL, Royal Mail or border authorities claim a parcel has been stopped for unpaid duties or suspicious contents.

Which? also found that six in 10 victims of phone or text scams said the call used number spoofing, meaning the number on your screen looked legitimate even though it wasn't. A familiar-looking number is not proof of who's calling.

What to do

• Don't answer calls from numbers you don't recognise, and don't answer withheld numbers at all.
• If a caller claims to be your bank, energy supplier or phone provider, hang up and call back using the number on their official website, app, or the back of your card. Never use a number the caller gives you.
• Never share a one-time passcode, your full card number, or approve anything in your banking app because someone on the phone told you to.
• Treat any request to move the conversation to WhatsApp or another messaging app as a warning sign, especially from an unsolicited 'job offer'.
• Register your landline and mobile with the free Telephone Preference Service (TPS). It won't stop fraud calls, which ignore the register, but it does cut down legitimate telemarketing.
• Use the call-blocking or call-screening features built into your phone, or a dedicated call-blocking device for landlines.
• Report nuisance calls to the ICO through its online reporting tool.
• Report suspected fraud to Report Fraud, or to Police Scotland on 101 if you're in Scotland.
• Report a business's calling practices to Trading Standards via Citizens Advice, and silent or abandoned calls to Ofcom.

What this does not fix

No app or setting can stop someone dialling your number, and a VPN plays no part in blocking phone calls at all. A VPN protects your internet traffic when you're online, it has nothing to do with the mobile network that carries voice calls. If you're being targeted by phone scams, the real defences are behavioural: not answering unknown numbers, never acting on a call you didn't initiate, and verifying independently before you share anything or approve anything.

Where a VPN and related tools do help is in what often follows a call, a text with a link, a request to 'verify' something online, or a prompt to enter details on a lookalike site. If that happens, check the link or message before you act on it rather than after.