This year, four of the largest mobile phone providers (EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three) will launch a new system, which blocks scammers who attempt to send text messages, which appear to come from your bank.  The Consumer Association Which? reports that ’for years, fraudsters have been spoofing bank phone numbers and scaring people with threatening text messages to call them back’. The new system will stop the spoofing of phone numbers and will help to distinguish between genuine and fraudulent text messages.

In the meantime, you can report scam and spam texts directly to your mobile phone provider by forwarding it to 7726, which is free of charge. To find out more, please see our ‘Alerts’ page