Scammers exploit UK's digital landline switch to swipe cash
Old deadline of January 2025 being used to push victims into paying up
UK consumer champion Which? warns that scammers are using the ongoing phone line digital switchover program in Britain and Northern Ireland to trick customers into handing over their payment details.
The organization says that victims have been called by miscreants claiming to be from BT, requesting they confirm their personal details and payment information ahead of their landline being switched from the analog phone service to its Digital Voice replacement.
Which? even says that some victims were asked for an immediate payment to facilitate the change to digital, and threatened with being disconnected if they didn't comply. We asked BT for comment.
BT's consumer division has already started the long process of migrating all its customers from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to Digital Voice, which operates as IP-based telephony. The move is part of a broader effort to eventually ditch the outdated copper wire infrastructure and have everything operate over fiber-optic networks.
The original deadline to have completed this was the end of 2025, and it seems that the crooks were still basing their scams loosely against this date, referring to "a January 2025 deadline" in order to panic victims into acting immediately, according to Which?
However, BT ran into problems with this original schedule, and realized it would take much longer to ensure vulnerable customers, including the elderly and those using Telecare services, could be safely switched over to the new technology.
Last year, the former state-owned telecoms giant, which still manages the bulk of Britain's communications infrastructure, announced it was pushing the deadline for the transition back to 2027.
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The plan has been to roll out the digital landline service on a region-by-region basis, and to contact all customers in each region at least four weeks ahead of the switch to make sure they are ready to move to Digital Voice. The scammers would seem to be taking advantage of this in order to trick people into giving up sensitive personal data.
According to some estimates, about 16 percent of UK consumers fell victim to phone scams back in 2023, with the average cost of falling for such schemes being about £634 ($780).
Elderly customers may be more vulnerable to such scams as they are often less tech-savvy than others and could be panicked into giving up their payment details. Anyone who has tried to explain what the digital switchover means to an elderly relative will know what we mean.
One previous phone scam involving fraudsters pretending to be from BT saw an elderly man conned out of £30,000 back in 2021.
However, UK mobile operator O2 last year unleashed a secret weapon against fraudsters, in the shape of an AI granny created to keep them busy on the phone and wasting their time by pretending to be a potential vulnerable target.
Which? advised consumers to treat all unsolicited phone calls with caution, even if they claim to be from BT or some other organization known to you. It notes that the caller ID that appears on your phone can be spoofed, and that consumers should never give out personal information, payment information, or passwords over the phone.
If anyone thinks they have given their payment details to a scammer, they should call their bank immediately so it can take steps to protect their account. ®