Vodafone UK has bolstered its anti-fraud defences in 2021, including a new SMS firewall.
As a result the company has reported “a sustained decrease in overall reported fraudulent text messages” during the busiest shopping period of the year. Daily average volumes of scam texts fell by an impressive 76% in December compared to May, with over 45 million phishing messages blocked since the end of August 2021.
Vodafone UK’s SMS firewall works by assessing the sender and intended recipient of a text, as well as a number of other details, to identify and block fraudulent messages in real-time.
Vodafone UK has also made it even easier for Android users to use its ‘7726’ service to report suspicious texts. Available to all customers free of charge, the service lets users share suspicious texts with Vodafone by forwarding them to the number 7726 for investigation. Android owners can report suspicious texts in Google’s Messages app simply by tapping a button.
Ross Doherty, UK Senior Fraud Manager at Vodafone
We can all fall for a fraudulent message, which is why we continue to work really hard to beat the scams and prevent them from getting through. The December figures are really encouraging, but fraudsters continue to find new ways to attempt to scam customers into sharing personal and financial information. So, we continue to ask our customers to remain vigilant and report any suspicious text activity to us at 7726.
