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Spain’s campaign against phone scams is proving to be a major success, with millions of fraudulent calls and messages now being stopped before they reach the public.

 

The Ministry of Digital Transformation and Public Administration confirmed this week that since the scheme was launched on March 7, more than 48 million scam calls and over 2.2 million fraudulent SMS messages have already been blocked. Minister Óscar López praised the progress, describing the results as “spectacular” and highlighting how the measures have been steadily strengthened over recent months.

 

At the start of the plan, some 235,600 calls and 10,000 text messages were being intercepted every day. But after new security steps were introduced in June and July, the figures shot up dramatically. The daily number of blocked calls rose to 434,915, while around 18,666 scam SMS messages are now being filtered out each day. That means an increase of 85% in calls and 87% in messages being stopped.

 

These improvements come on top of rules introduced earlier this year that ban companies from cold-calling consumers for sales purposes, which many residents welcomed after years of nuisance phone marketing. In May, further reforms to customer service regulations reinforced this stance, giving consumers greater protection against aggressive or misleading phone tactics.

 

As part of the current anti-fraud drive, operators are obliged to block all calls and SMS messages that appear to come from unassigned or empty numbers, cutting off one of the most common tricks used by scammers. Another key measure, introduced on June 7, ensures that international calls pretending to originate from Spain are automatically blocked, except when made by roaming customers. This has been described as a vital step in preventing fraud attempts from abroad.

 

Looking further ahead, authorities are also preparing a verified database of names and alphanumeric codes for trusted organisations such as banks, public bodies and large companies. The system, which the National Commission of Markets and Competition is due to oversee by 2026, will make it much easier to check that a call or message is genuine and not an impersonation.

 

With scams becoming ever more sophisticated, López stressed that improvements to the system have been “essential to increase protection” and to adapt quickly to new forms of fraud.

 

 

Image: Porapak Apichodilok/Pexels