The UK government has launched an eight-week consultation on proposals to ban cold calling for any consumer-focussed financial product.
The consultation will run from 2 August 2023 and is designed to ban calls relating to investments, mortgages and insurance products.
“The cold calling consultation is an important step forward in our efforts to block fraud at source,” said Tom Tugendhat, the UK’s security minister. “It will have a major impact once it is in force.”
The government hopes that, once the ban is in place, consumers will automatically know that any call about a financial services product is from a scam provider.
“Cold calling for financial services and products has long been used by fraudsters to manipulate and trick members of the public into scams,” said economic secretary Andrew Griffith. “We want people to feel confident to put the phone down and report these illegitimate calls.
“We will ban cold calling for all consumer financial services and products, so the public can be sure that it’s not a legitimate firm if they get a call about a financial product out of the blue without their consent.”
The consultation follows the publication of the government’s anti-fraud strategy which was outlined on 3 May and the formation of the Online Advertising Taskforce which brings together representatives from the tech industry with the Advertising Standards Authority.