Firstly, head over to our Advice Page to register your number with the Telephone Preference Service; this will help stop sales cold-calls. Once there, you will find other agency reporting portals to notify about scam calls. If you repeatedly receive spam or scam calls, accepting or rejecting the call will signal to the caller that the number is in use (by you).

If you received the scam as a text message or it involved any form of SMS phishing (smishing), you can forward the message to 7726 (which spells “SPAM” on a phone keypad).

This is a free service provided by most mobile operators to report spam texts

You can check the owner of a phone number using our free reverse-number lookup service here. Our database is crowd sourced, meaning someone else has received a call before you, and reported the number to us. This allows you to get an idea of the callers intentions; though this is not guaranteed. We analyse our data regularly and strive for consistency and high standards before sharing our information with the public.

Got that feeling in your stomach? act on it. If you’ve just had a call where you handed over private information, and think it might have been a scam – don’t panic. They are known as con-artists (confidence tricksters) for a reason!

Write down the information you think you provided; this will come in handy later. You now need to secure your finances; call your bank immediately, and inform them of the information you handed over. Change ALL online passwords, Facebook, Sainsbury’s, whatever the account, change them all. Setup 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) where possible. If someone eludes to knowing your address, or your name – and they’re putting you in fear, you need to speak to the police on 101 (999 in emergencies).