UK Set To Ban Cold Calls Selling Financial Products

The UK is now set to ban all cold calls which sell financial products, playing a huge part in a national crackdown on scams. Unsolicited cold callsalls that are offering any financial product will be covered by the ban, with an aim to stop fraudsters offering scam-insurance products or even more recently, cryptocurrency schemes. A new fraud squad‚ who will help battle this will also be set up with 500 staff, rising up from the current 120.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the new rules will tackle "cold-hearted" scammers who "ruin lives in seconds."

He claimed that these scams often fund "organised crime and terror".

Fraud is now the most common crime in the UK, with one in 15 people falling victim. Only just last summer, Ofcom found that over 41 million people were targeted by suspicious calls and texts. However, data suggests that most fraud now has an online element.

The government have announced that the blanket ban on cold calls selling financial products would cover legitimate calls as well.

Meaning that "anyone who receives a call trying to sell them products such as cryptocurrency schemes or insurance will know it's a scam", it said.