Community Intervention

Trading Standards has a number of call blockers that they loan out FREE of charge to vulnerable residents.

A call blocker can stop up to 95% of unwanted nuisance and scam calls coming through to a vulnerable person. This simple hand-held device sits between your home phone and wall socket and is installed by someone within your Trading Standards team.

Pat** is an older person, living with a visual impairment and residing independently in Staffordshire. Pat started to receive a high number of nuisance calls, (silent calls, aggressive sales calls & scam calls), that were coming in through the day and late into the night. Pat was becoming anxious that she was going to become a victim of a scam. Previously, Pat had seen the home phone as a lifeline, a connection to friends and family, but was now afraid to answer the phone. 

A member of the Trading Standards team visited Pat to install a call blocker and show her how it worked. Once in place the call blocker began to stop these unwanted calls coming through to Pat. Pat herself refers to the call blocker as a ‘life saver’ and continues to enjoy using the phone to talk with friends and family. 

*based on findings from a recent NTS Scams Team call blocker project.

**for confidentiality we’ve changed Pat’s details.