In 2025, employment scams were by far the most common type of phone scam in the UK — knocking off HMRC tax scams from the #1 position they have held for years.
Employment scams in high volumes are relatively new to the UK. Last year they weren’t even in the top 10, but this year they surged past HMRC scams in March and remained the #1 scam the rest of the year.
Below are descriptions of the 10 most common phone scams in the UK in 2025.
1. Employment – A surge in employment scams first surfaced in Spain in late 2024 and then spread across Europe. By the middle of 2025, employment scams were #1 in both Spain and the UK. Most commonly, these employment scams begin with a robocall impersonating a human resources representative from a well-known job matching website such as Indeed or LinkedIn. The phony HR rep claims to have seen your resume and wants to tell you more about the job after you connect on WhatsApp. The scammer is usually seeking personal information or a bank account number, supposedly for direct deposit of paychecks.
2. HMRC tax scams – Although tax scams impersonating HMRC (His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) fell to #2 in Q2 2025, they don’t show any signs of going away. Up until March 2025, HMRC scams had been #1 for years. These scams hit their peak during the last week of January — which coincides with the Jan. 31 tax filing deadline — and then moved to lower levels as the year progressed.
3. Amazon – Amazon is one of the world’s largest retailers, so scammers making random calls are likely to reach plenty of people who have Amazon accounts. Often the scammer will claim that the credit card linked to their account is not working, so they need to confirm the existing credit card number, or they ask for a new credit card number.
4. Mobile phone service – Calls promoting mobile phone services are reported as a mixture of telemarketing sales calls and outright fraud. The fraud calls are usually impersonation scams where the caller pretends to represent one of the large mobile phone providers in the UK in order to obtain payment or to extract personal information that can be used for identity theft.
5. Bank imposters – Bank imposter scams are common worldwide. Often the caller will claim there’s a problem with the account and will ask the victim for account numbers or passwords to remedy the situation. Sometimes they will impersonate a specific bank, or they may simply claim to be calling from “your bank.” When successful, these scams can result in high losses for the victims. Bank scams hit a high point in April, then declined, and then turned upward again in the fall.
6. Immigration scams – Immigration scams attempt to extort money from immigrants by threatening them with arrest or deportation. Users reported robocalls from “The Immigration Bureau,” which is not an actual agency in the UK. That same phoney name is used in immigration scams in Canada. While many users were quick to recognize the calls as fraud, they can be quite upsetting for actual immigrants.
7. Cryptocurrency – There are a variety of cryptocurrency scams. A common one is a call telling the recipient they have funds in a crypto account that needs to be transferred. The scammers try to convince their victims to transfer money out of a crypto account they own, into a different crypto account controlled by the scammer. Several users mentioned that the scammer knew their first and last name.
8. Credit card – Just as with bank scams, fraudsters will pretend to represent credit card companies. Often they will claim to be calling from the fraud prevention department, saying they suspect a fraudulent transaction and to press 1 to speak to a representative. The goal is to get the victim to reveal their credit card number.
9. Energy/electricity – Energy and electricity scams are common in many European countries. In the UK, users reported these as both nuisance telemarketing calls and illegal fraud calls. With the fraud calls, scammers impersonate energy and electricity companies that operate in the UK, hoping to dupe people desperate to save money on their energy costs. These calls peaked during the cold winter months when energy bills are at their highest.
10. Chinese language scams – There are several scams that specifically target Chinese speakers. Often these are robocalls spoken in English and Chinese, or Chinese only. Sometimes they are immigration scams (see #6 above) or they try to steal money or personal information by pretending to represent a package delivery company or the UK’s National Health Service.
Hiya is in a unique position to measure unwanted calls in the UK — both fraud and nuisance calls. Consumers using Hiya’s spam protection service through their mobile carrier, device manufacturer, or the Hiya mobile app, can report unwanted calls directly from their mobile device. When they do, they can also submit a comment about the nature of the call they received. Using keywords in those comments allows Hiya to measure specific scam calls over time.
The best way to avoid phone scams is to prevent them from getting through in the first place.
For mobile phone carriers, there’s Hiya Protect, which protects subscribers by blocking fraud calls and labeling nuisance calls. It is used by carriers, device manufacturers, and network providers who are looking to create a differentiated voice offering and increase customer satisfaction.
For busy professionals and companies with bring-your-own-device policies, there’s the Hiya AI Phone, which features real-time scam protection, AI-voice and deepfake protection, AI-assisted call screening, and call summaries and transcripts.
For individuals using a carrier that does not offer network-based spam protection, there’s the free Hiya Spam Blocker app, which is available for Android and iPhones.