OUR WORK

159

In September 2021, we launched our flagship 159 phone service. 159 connects consumers safely and securely with their bank should they receive an unexpected or suspicious call about a financial matter. There have already been over 400,000 calls to 159, and you can read further about our plans for developing the service here.

Scam Intelligence

We have completed a pilot project to engage with scam text messages that have been captured by our telco members. We start conversations with scammers to understand the scam journey and gather actionable intelligence. From this we have identified and closed down phone numbers and mule accounts being used for scams, and exceeded expectations with the value of savings to our members.

URL Blocking

Through a collaboration led by the Cyber Defence Alliance (CDA), we are helping to protect customers from accessing phishing websites. The CDA started domain blocking with UK mobile network operators in 2020. Later in 2021, we began to submit data to BT and TalkTalk to help them to do the same. We are collaborating with the CDA to expand the initiative further.

Data Sharing

We are undertaking an ambitious programme of work on data sharing building on research published together with the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). In addition to important recommendations for changes in policy, this work is helping establish how information can be better and more effectively shared between organisations. It will enable the development of scalable, replicable data sharing across our three sectors.

Other projects

Along with our members, we are taking forward several other projects intended to bring additional insight and intelligence to our understanding of the scam problem and help build solutions. This includes using voice biometrics to match criminal voices across multiple members and a system that allows banks to know if an online banking customer has a live remote access session on their device. More information on these projects can be found in our annual report here.