Proposals to fight ‘blight’ of scam calls and texts could save €1.5 billion by 2030, watchdog says

Proposals aimed at targeting the “blight” of scams could save Irish consumers and businesses as much as €1.5 billion before the end of the decade if adopted by the telecoms sector, the communications watchdog has said.

Opening a period of consultation on measures aimed at reducing the damage done by scam calls and texts, the Commission for the Regulation of Communication, ComReg, said the “total quantifiable harm” as a result of nuisance communications “is conservatively estimated at over €300 million each year”.

It said around €115m was lost as a result of scam text messages and €187m due to scam calls.

ComReg also commissioned research that offered insight into the scale of the problem. Last year alone there were in the region of 365,000 cases of fraudulent scams and as many as 89 million annoying/irritating communications and 31 million distressing communications. It said more than 5,000 businesses were victims of fraud after receiving scam calls and texts.

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“These scams are a blight on society and cause significant financial and economic damage to all sectors of society including consumers, business, and public bodies,” ComReg said as it announced the consultation period, which is set to run until July 28th.

“Scams also diminish the trust placed by consumers and businesses in calls and SMS,” it noted, adding that the “prevalence of scam calls and SMS has increased in recent years, with the vast majority of mobile users reporting to have received scam calls or SMS”.

[ Conor Pope’s night of texting with a scam artist: ‘Hi Dad, I’m texting you off a friend’s phone...’ ]

ComReg is proposing to require operators to implement a number of technical interventions, including the introduction of more rigorous call blocking systems to stop fraudsters abroad spoofing Irish numbers to make scam voice calls.

It also wants a “protected number list” to be introduced to stop fraudsters using numbers not yet in service or allocated to a telecoms operator .

It believes operators should take steps to allow businesses and organisations to secure their numbers and introduce an SMS Sender ID Protection Registry to allow legitimate businesses and organisations to register a SMS Sender ID while blocking those not on the Register.

It is also proposing advanced voice firewalls to block spam calls wherever they originate and assessing scam filters which would block scam SMS messages and protect against future more sophisticated scams.

[ A €10,000 Revolut scam: He had an Irish accent and said his name was Andrew ]

ComReg said the overall benefit of the package of interventions, if implemented, would be about €1.5 billion over the next seven years while the benefits to society for each euro spent on the interventions would be substantial and should bring €50 in economic and social benefit for every €1 spent.

“The SMS Scam filter is an essential measure to prevent criminals from attempting to defraud Irish customers because, like the voice firewall, it is a dynamic intervention that reacts to the latest scams,” ComReg said.

However, it noted that it would require legislative change and said it was engaging with its parent department, the Department of the Communications. It accepted that there is “a compromise here between privacy and fraud prevention but considers the measures to be proportionate given it is aimed at stopping this very serious fraud”.