The United Kingdom is set to ban cold calls selling financial products, including insurance and cryptocurrencies, to crack down on fraud. The National Crime Agency estimates that fraud costs the country approximately £7 billion ($8.7 billion) annually.
The U.K. government announced its new fraud strategy, pledging 400 new jobs to update its approach to intelligence-led policing. The government will work alongside the telecoms regulator, the Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, to use new technology to counter phone number “spoofing,” which would prevent fraudsters from impersonating legitimate U.K. phone numbers.