Overview
- The government and mobile operators this week agreed to upgrade networks within a year to block overseas number spoofing and roll out advanced call tracing to aid police investigations.
- The State of Scams in the UK report finds 67% of adults encountered scams in the past year and 20% lost money, with 24% facing multiple attempts each week.
- Emails, phone calls, texts, social media, digital adverts and online marketplaces are the most common starting points for scam approaches.
- Shopping and purchase scams were the most prevalent, with 77% of victims reporting incidents to payment providers and 47% recovering at least some funds.
- Older adults are frequently targeted while Millennials suffer larger average losses (£1,456.90), with experts highlighting growing use of AI voice cloning and deepfakes in impersonation schemes.