Phone companies criticised for delays in acting on scam calls

Comreg's comments come amid a surge in phone fraud, including text messages purporting to come from the operators of motorway tolls. Picture: iStock

The communications regulator has criticised phone companies for delays in tackling scams which “continue to put Irish telephone users at serious risk from fraudsters”.

Comreg said consumers are being “inconvenienced, confused, and threatened” by the volume of scam calls and fraudulent texts they receive on a daily basis.

It comes after Bank of Ireland warned that motorway toll scams are on the rise, amid fears that fraudsters could escalate efforts to dupe people by pretending to be from energy companies.

Comreg made the comments in an update on how it is tackling scam calls and texts. In December 2021, it set up the Nuisance Communications Industry Taskforce to “tackle this menace” as data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) suggested a significant rise in fraud. 

The taskforce has overseen the development of measures to stop scammers getting through to Irish consumers, and the regulator said such efforts had blocked over 1m calls in March alone.

One of these methods is fixed calling line identification (CLI) call blocking, which is when a call from abroad, but appearing to be coming from an Irish number, is blocked.

Comreg said: “When fully implemented, this intervention will block calls originating from abroad presenting with Fixed Irish CLIs, shutting the door on criminals who use this technique to defraud the Irish public.”

An implementation date of March 31 was proposed to the members of the taskforce, which includes the major telecoms providers.

However, Comreg said that implementation has been “slow”. The providers who have brought it in include Three, Virgin Media, Tesco Mobile, and Eir.

“While the progress to date is encouraging, the delay in some quarters continues to put Irish telephone users at serious risk from fraudsters, it said. “Clearly this is an undesirable situation.” The regulator said it wants to roll out a similar solution for spoofed calls from mobiles with a target date of September.