Telecom companies blocked millions of scam calls during summer | Yle News

The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) last year asked operators to block fraudulent phone calls for their customers.

Open the image viewer

Finnish telecom companies report that they blocked a large number of fraudulent calls from abroad this summer.

In June and July, Telia blocked around 2.5 million fraudulent calls; in May, it blocked an average of 11,300 fraudulent calls per day.

Telia’s security experts Christian WesterstrahleThe company said in a press release that a technology solution implemented late last year has helped the operator block scam calls.

“It seems that the scammers have noticed this as well, as the number of scam attempts has dropped significantly. May was the quietest month, but during the summer the number of scam calls has increased again,” says Westerstråhle.

Last year, the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency (Traficom) required operators to block fraudulent phone calls for their customers. The regulation, which comes into effect in October 2023, requires operators to prevent the theft of Finnish mobile phone numbers by changing the caller ID to mask the true source of the call.

Telecommunications company Elisa reported that it blocked nearly 1 million scam calls from May to July, depending on how it was counted.

Elisa said the reason it had fewer scam calls compared with Telia was because its nationwide solution, launched a year ago, built on earlier innovations that had already significantly reduced the number of scam call attempts on its network.

Things are improving

Ilkka Tominen, The head of anti-fraud at telecommunications company DNA reports that scam calls have been a concern for DNA this year.

Tuominen said an average of 10,700 fraud calls were blocked every day between April and June. The situation improved slightly in July, with the number of calls blocked falling to around 9,000 per day.

Tuominen noted that 2023 was the worst year for scam calls, with DNA blocking up to 10 million scam calls throughout the year. Thanks to Traficom’s supervision and improved blocking technology, the number of scam attempts decreased compared to the previous year.

“When the mobile number call restrictions were introduced, there was a surge in panic among scammers. Now that the situation has stabilized, scammers are looking for new ways to get access to users’ assets,” he said.

For example, fraudulent messages impersonating banks or government agencies are more common than fraudulent calls from DNA. From June to July, DNA blocked about 14,000 fraudulent messages per day.

However, experts say not all scams can be prevented by operators. Finns have lost tens of millions of euros to various online scams.

“The situation is very serious. This crime has been industrialised abroad and the sums of money being siphoned are so huge that criminals are unwilling to give up,” Tuominen said.

Users with a Yle ID can comment on our news reports. You can create your Yle ID in the following ways: This linkOur comment and moderation guidelines are explained here.