Cookham Discussion Board

A device that prevents scam and nuisance phone calls is available to Royal Borough residents, free of charge.

Scam blockers are installed by our trading standards team and provide an added layer of security, filtering out unwanted calls before your phone rings.

The Royal Borough’s trading standards team have fitted over 20 blockers in the last four months, including one for a vulnerable resident and their partner who lost £400,000 through scam phone calls.

Nationwide, almost 1000 blockers have been installed, preventing 99% of scam and nuisance calls.

Statistics after one month of the project’s implementation showed that 40% of all incoming calls received were unwanted, and each unit received on average 29 nuisance calls throughout the month.

Cllr Cannon, lead member for public protection and parking, said: “These call blockers, which are free to borough residents, provide an extra layer of security and peace of mind when the phone rings.

“Unfortunately, scam telephone calls are common, but this system can almost entirely eliminate this issue which many have been affected by.

“Anyone can apply for a blocker subject to basic assessment criteria. The blocker doesn’t just help the resident, but data is fed back to the National Trading Standards Team for investigation into the actual numbers and businesses making the calls.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to protect our vulnerable residents from unwanted phone calls.”
 
The call blockers are available from Friday 13 March and residents can find out more information and apply for a call blocker for themselves or someone else, with permission, by visiting https://www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk/callblocker.