Portsmouth MP greets with caution BT plan to tackle nuisance callers

PORTSMOUTH South MP Flick Drummond has met with caution plans by telecoms giant BT to launch a new service aimed at diverting millions of nuisance calls.

A BT team will monitor calls to the company’s 10m customers and identify any patterns of callers.

Any rogue numbers will be diverted to a junk voicebox, which BT estimates will affect up to 25m unwanted calls a week.

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BT customers will also be able to divert calls themselves to the ‘blacklist’.

Mrs Drummond fears nuisance callers will find ways around the new system.

She said: ‘This idea is to be welcomed, but I am cautious that it will work because I’m sure nuisance call operators are already trying to figure out a way around the junk box, just like it appears they have circumvented the Telephone Preference Service that was supposed to halt the rise of these calls.

‘However, BT is to be praised for doing something as nuisance calls cause distress to vulnerable people and any lessening of their frequency is good, especially because sometimes they come from fraudsters trying to access personal information and security passwords.’

The service will launch this year.

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