Scotland suffers the highest number of nuisance calls in the UK. That’s why we’ll be meeting the people of Glasgow and Aberdeen to hear their stories and share the best advice on avoiding this menace.
Nuisance calls are a blight for too many Scots. In research conducted last summer 29% of Scottish residents said they received 11 or more of these calls in a single month, compared to 17% in the rest of the UK. Overall, 83% of people in Scotland said they had received nuisance calls on their landline.
Our research has found that Scotland’s cities have the highest rates of this telephone irritant in the UK. We teamed up with call blocking provider trueCall and analysed over nine million phone calls made to their customers between January 2013 and September 2016. Glasgow came top of a table ranking 18 UK cities by percentage of nuisance calls trueCall users in those locations received. Edinburgh was second and Aberdeen fourth.
Tackling nuisance calls together
Since we launched our ‘Stop Nuisance Calls in Scotland’ campaign in December 2015, more than 25,000 Scots have joined our call for the Scottish Government to take action.
We’ve worked closely with the Scottish Government and industry to identify the causes and propose practical steps to tackle the problem. We successfully lobbied the Scottish Government to convene a commission involving regulators, industry and consumer groups to develop an action plan to rid households of the woe that is nuisance calls and texts.
As part of our commitment to this issue, we are leading a campaign to raise awareness amongst consumers of how to prevent and protect themselves from nuisance calls and scams.
Nuisance calls awareness week
Beginning on Monday 11 September, we’ll be at Glasgow Central Station with our ‘Big Phone’ and staff will be on-site all day handing out a new advice leaflet and providing practical advice. We’ll be following this up with another event in Aberdeen Station on Thursday 14 September, as well as briefing MSPs in the Scottish Parliament on the Wednesday afternoon.
We’ll also be working with Trading Standards Scotland to highlight the danger of scam phone calls and providing clear advice about how consumers can avoid being ripped-off by unscrupulous scammers.
So if you’re in Glasgow or Aberdeen on Monday 11 and Thursday 14 September respectively please stop by our events and have a chat.
How do you feel about the statistics around nuisance calls in Scotland? What more would you like to see the Scottish Government do about it?
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