Seeing your bank's real name and number appear on your phone screen feels like proof enough. It isn't. Criminals can make almost any number or name display on your caller ID through a technique called spoofing — and the display alone tells you nothing reliable about who's actually calling.
Why the number on your screen can't be trusted
Caller ID spoofing lets a scammer make a call appear to come from your bank, HMRC, or your broadband provider, using widely available VoIP technology. Ofcom has been tightening rules requiring UK telecoms providers to detect and block spoofed calls where technically possible, and has published guidance for providers on identifying and blocking spoofed international calls — but spoofing hasn't been eliminated, and a growing share of unwanted or fraudulent calls in the UK still use it.
The correct way to verify a suspicious call
- Hang up. Don't stay on the line "just to check," and never act on instructions given during the call itself, including being told to transfer money to a "safe account" — no legitimate bank will ever ask you to do that.
- Never call back using the number that appears on your screen or in your call history. If it was spoofed, you'll just reach the scammer again, or a premium-rate number they control.
- Wait a few minutes before calling back to make sure the line has genuinely cleared, then call the number printed on your bank card, a genuine past statement, or the official website you type in yourself — never a number given to you during the suspicious call.
If it was a text message instead
Forward the suspicious text to 7726 (free on all UK networks, spelling "SPAM" on a phone keypad). This feeds directly into your network's spam and fraud detection systems and helps them identify and block the sender.
Reporting the call or scam properly
- Report the incident to Action Fraud (actionfraud.police.uk), the UK's national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre — this feeds into a national intelligence picture used to identify patterns across victims, even though it won't produce an individual investigation from a single report.
- If you already shared account details or moved money, contact your bank's fraud team immediately — this matters far more than the call report itself for actually recovering funds.
- Be skeptical of any UK number or organisation claiming to have its own dedicated public "verification hotline" for scam calls — Ofcom itself doesn't run a consumer-facing number-checking service; its role is setting rules for providers, not verifying individual calls for members of the public.