The UK government has announced plans to ban cold calls as part of an effort to crack down on fraudulent sales practices with a new law being introduced to ban cold calls in a bid to prevent scammers from stealing £7 billion a year
Cold calling refers to the practice of phoning individuals without their consent to sell products or services, and the new legislation will impose a blanket ban on both legitimate and fraudulent cold calling.
In order to track down financial fraudsters who are estimated to cost Britons around £7 billion annually, approximately 400 investigators will be hired, and the government will also use MI6 resources as well as overseas agencies.
“Fraud now accounts for over 40% of crime. It costs us nearly £7 billion a year and we know these proceeds are funding organised crime and terror.
“What’s more, new technologies are making these scams easier to do and harder to police,” the government said.
To combat the issue of cold calls, Ofcom has pledged to offer technology that will prevent individuals from impersonating legitimate businesses such as banks and telephone companies.
The UK government has initiated a consultation process to determine the specific products that will be included in the ban.
“Scammers ruin lives in seconds, deceiving people in the most despicable ways in order to line their pockets,” prime minister Rishi Sinak said.
“The time has come to put the fraudsters out of business. And that’s what I’m determined to do.”
With new technology, the government will look to stop cases of number spoofing, which is when fraudsters impersonate UK numbers in order to pretend they’re calling from a legitimate business.
