<p>The Government and industry signed the Telecommunications Fraud Sector Charter, a voluntary agreement to improve counter-fraud efforts, in October 2021.</p><p>Under the Charter, the sector has introduced firewalls that detect and stop scam texts from reaching customers. The firewalls have proved successful, and have stopped 700 million scam text messages since January 2022. The firewalls also monitor and stop “FluBot malware” used by criminals to infect and take over a victim’s phone to steal credit or debit card details.</p><p>We are keen to build on the success of the first Charter and start work on a renewed version in the coming months to push criminals out of using telecommunications to contact victims.</p>