How Vodafone is tackling the menace of spoof calls

Imagine picking up a call from what looks like your bank, only to realise moments later that you’ve been duped into handing over your personal details. Those calls are a reality every day, and scams are becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect.

How fraudsters exploit technology

The low cost of international calls and advances in IP technology have made it cheaper and easier for fraudsters to make automated scam calls to consumers anywhere in the world.

If people answer scam calls, fraudsters can attempt to build trust or manipulate them into making payments or giving away personal details like passwords.

In June, a study by Juniper Research found that global losses to robocalling fraud could peak at over $80 billion in 2025. The UK’s National Crime Agency reported that scam calls account for around 41% of all reported crime incidents in England and Wales.

Unfortunately, the “robocalling” tactics used by fraudsters are only becoming more sophisticated. Not only are these automated calls impersonating trusted organisations like banks, but AI-based systems have also entered the fray.

Another common tactic used by scammers to get victims to answer their calls is by using ‘spoof’ phone numbers that disguise the origin of the call and make it appear trustworthy.

The human cost of scams

The human cost of scams is far more than just a nuisance. Beneath the surface lies a far more insidious reality, touching on financial loss, emotional distress, and broader societal harm. Vulnerable groups are especially at risk, and the damage is mounting.

In the UK alone, more than £17.5 million was lost to pension fraud in 2024, with scammers frequently posing as providers of early access or lucrative investment schemes. For countless victims, the impact has been catastrophic, as entire life savings can disappear in a matter of moments.

Advancements in artificial intelligence are making scams increasingly sophisticated and convincing, spanning everything from social media platforms to websites. Yet, phone calls remain one of the most financially damaging methods used by scammers

As a result, people of all ages are being targeted. While Gen Z and Millennials are often seen as tech-savvy and scam-aware, they’re not immune to the impact of scam calls. In fact, research shows that 10% of fraud losses experienced by younger adults originate from a phone call.

Global CLI Trust

With the volume and sophistication of scam and spam calls continuing to grow, we’ve developed a centralised global system to protect our customers – the Global CLI Trust platform.

In real time, the platform validates incoming calls and automatically blocks suspicious traffic before it reaches our customers. Not only does it verify the phone number format - including invalid formats, unallocated ranges, and “do-not-originate” numbers often used in spoofing attacks - but it also analyses each call against known international fraud patterns.

To ensure global protection, the platform analyses a comprehensive database of number ranges from more than 100 countries, while complying with national regulations in over 60 markets.

The Global CLI Trust platform has already blocked more than 300 million non-compliant and spam calls across the UK, Ireland, and Romania. Building on this success, Vodafone will extend the Global CLI Trust platform to additional markets, further enhancing the capabilities that protect customers today.

Striving for safer connectivity

Spoof calls are far more than a mere inconvenience, they represent a global threat to consumer trust, financial security, and our collective digital wellbeing.

By pioneering the Global CLI Trust platform, we are setting a new benchmark in real-time call validation, having already blocked hundreds of millions of fraudulent calls.

As we look to the future, our unwavering commitment remains safeguarding our customers, wherever they are in the world, and paving the way towards safer, more secure connectivity for all.