Residents of the UK receive fewer spam calls than those living in other European countries: an average of only 3 per person each month. Even that is a decline from a year ago when Brits received 4 calls per person in the first half of 2023.
That was one of the findings from Hiya’s latest Global Call Threat Report, which reports data from the first half of 2024. The report reveals spam rates in more than 40 countries worldwide and details the most common scam calls in select countries.
Download the H1 2024 Global Call Threat Report
Most unwanted calls are nuisance calls
The report not only gauges the number of spam calls per person each month, but of those spam calls it breaks down the percentage that are fraud calls vs. nuisance calls. Nuisance calls include telemarketing and sales calls that may be annoying but are not illegal, whereas fraud calls are intended to steal money or personal information.
For unknown calls (calls from someone not in an individual’s personal contact list) 25% were identified by Hiya as nuisance and 3% were identified as fraud, for a total spam rate of 28%. The UK’s 3% fraud rate is relatively low compared to other countries in Europe. For example, the fraud rate is 12% in Spain, 8% in Finland, and 7% in Poland and Sweden.
In the UK, 25% of unknown calls are identified as nuisance and 3% are identified as fraud.
The most common phone scams in the UK
In the UK, tax scams — especially those impersonating the UK’s tax agency Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) — were the most common scams in the first half of 2024, as they were for all of 2023. Although the deadline for filing online tax returns was January 31, the calls continued well into the year. In preparation for tax season, the UK government warned citizens of fraudulent calls offering tax rebates, requests to update tax details, and threats of immediate arrest for tax evasion.
In the UK, HMRC tax scams were the most common type of phone scam in the first half of 2024.
Amazon scams were #2. They increased prior to the holidays and continued going strong into 2024. Credit card scams were also prevalent before and after the new year, with callers impersonating Visa, Mastercard and other credit card companies. There were also cryptocurrency scams and a variety of schemes that promised to lower energy bills. Electricity and energy-related scams shot up during the colder months of January through March.
Immigration scams started the year slow, and then surged in April. Hiya users reported robocalls warning that their immigration visas had expired, urging the recipient to press a number to speak to an immigration officer.
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Hiya's Global Call Threat Report is an invaluable resource for comparing spam rates in countries around the world. Download the report to discover:
Methodology
Data in the Global Call Threat Report report is based on a representative sample of calls observed during the first half of 2024 on the Hiya Voice Security Network, which includes Samsung Smart Call enabled devices and the Hiya mobile app.
Spam is defined as unwanted calls, and includes both fraud calls and nuisance calls. The spam flag rate represents calls that Hiya has identified and flagged as either “potential fraud” or “suspected spam.” Spam ratios represent the number of unwanted calls from non-contacts, which are calls placed from numbers that are not in an individual’s local address book.