Vodafone UK blocks bulk nuisance calls. Hurrah!

Stamps out spammers with new barring technology

Vodafone blocked 425,000 nuisance and scam calls in a single day, while testing new call-barring technology for its UK mobile network.

And during a week of tests, nuisance and fraudulent call attempts plummeted to less than 1000 as the bad guys realised that Vodafone could and would block their calls.

Success. The new, unspecified technology has now gone live, meaning that most Voda UK customers are now protected - mostly - from bogus PPI offers, missed call or expensive numbers to ring for bogus offers and prizes at source before they get through to customers.

Scam calls are typically operated by organised criminal gangs using dialers that can automatically generate thousands of calls simultaneously./p>

In a statement today, Vodafone explained that prior to this deployment it could stop customers from unintentionally returning a call to a fraudulent number, but was not able to stop them receiving the scam call in the first place.

Mark Hughes, head of corporate security for Vodafone UK, said: “Fraudulent calls are a scourge on society, inflicting great anxiety for victims. The protection of our customers is paramount and we have been investing heavily in our network and technology to help stamp out this practice. We will continue to evolve the technology as well as work with industry bodies and the regulator to ensure we keep one step ahead of criminals.” ®