Epidemic of scam calls continues to hit mobile users

Irish mobile operators are struggling to contain a scam call epidemic that continues to affect millions of Irish smartphone users.

“[Scam] texts seem to be non-stop,” said one reader who contacted the Irish Independent.

“From banks to deliveries… I’m now reluctant to answer calls from numbers I don’t know at this stage.”

A Banking Payments Federation of Ireland (BFPI) report this month revealed that over 70pc of Irish people are being hit with scam calls and texts. The barrage of calls, texts and emails has almost doubled over the last year, according to the BFPI.

Some say that the volume of scam calls and texts has abated, but is still present.

“At one point it was a few times a day,” one reader told the Irish Independent. “[There was] one last week and actually none for two weeks before that.”

Irish mobile operators say they are trying to address the issue but have not yet reported any meaningful success.

Asked about the issue, Vodafone and Eir declined to comment directly.

A Three spokesperson said that Ireland’s second largest mobile operator was working with other operators and “swiftly” shutting down scam calls or texts that originate on its network.

However, it admits that where the number has been “spoofed”, or faked, it is “more difficult, since we cannot identify the real origin”.

The spokesperson said: “We are proactively monitoring our network for large spikes in call volumes which could be scam calls and take action to prevent further calls being made, if required. Once reported by our customers, we consider if we can block number ranges to prevent further customer impact.”

She also said that Three is passing on details to authorities where appropriate.

A spokesperson for the operators lobbying body, Ibec’s Telecommunications Industry Ireland, said that operators face an uphill battle tackling the issue.

“This traffic almost always originates abroad,” he said. “Unfortunately, numbers are frequently ‘spoofed’, that is, disguised as Irish numbers, and this makes it virtually impossible to detect the point of origin.

Despite this, Irish operators are trying to work with authorities and mitigate the problem, he said.

“Our members have invested significant resources in staff and IT systems to combat scam calls and texts. They constantly monitor traffic patterns on their networks to detect surges that could be scam calls and put the appropriate countermeasures in place. When customers report scam calls, telecommunications operators review the scope to block the relevant number ranges.”