More Than Half Of British Adults Plagued By Scam Calls On Their Mobile Phones

UK Leads Europe in Mobile Nuisance Calls

More than half (53%) of adults in Britain regularly receive fraudulent or  scam calls on their mobiles, according to online YouGov research from call-blocking and caller ID Company, Hiya (www.hiya.com).

Scam calls are on the rise in the UK, which now gets more nuisance calls than any other country in Europe (13% of all calls), according to Hiya. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the research showed that nearly one in four Brits (24%) don’t answer calls from unknown numbers on their mobile phone.

On average, three percent of adults that have received a fraudulent or scam call have lost money as a result of this, although this figure rose significantly in Scotland to seven percent of adults.

“Defrauding people is big business,” says Alex Algard, CEO of Hiya. “Scammers are getting more sophisticated. There are some convincing fraudsters out there using mobile phones to entice people into giving away personal data and financial information. Scammers are particularly good at luring people with the false promise of free money, for example, accident compensation that will never materialise.”

Key findings from the research include:

• 53% of British adults receive fraudulent or scam calls on their mobiles at least once a month
• 35% of people receive a scam call at least once a week
• 24% of adults never answer calls from unknown numbers
• Of those that have ever received a fraudulent or scam call, 63% of respondents have hung up on the suspicious caller immediately, but a significant number have also let the call continue, whether to find out more (14%), or to simply play along with the person on the other end of the line (25%)
• On average, 3% of adults in Great Britain that have ever received a fraudulent or scam call have lost money through this
• 7% of these in Scotland have lost money through fraudulent or scam calls

Notes on the research: The research, conducted by YouGov on behalf of Hiya, had a total sample size of 2055 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 4^th and 5^th October 2016.  The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).