Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today revealed that their UK network blocked 168 million suspected fraudulent text messages from reaching customers over the past two years (up from 89 million texts in 2023), with scams including fake TikTok job offers, and deals and discounts for popular brands.
Most of the United Kingdom’s major broadband, phone and mobile network providers have already implemented various technical measures to tackle Nuisance and Scam calls and text messages (SMS). Similarly, O2 has also been gradually implementing Hiya‘s AI-powered scam detection and protection services, and customers have been helping by reporting scam messages and calls to the 7726 number.
The operator has today also released the results of a new survey they conducted via Censuswide during January 2025, which involved just 1,002 respondents aged 13-16. The research claims to have found that 2.2 million phone-owning teens have received a scam message, but despite 77% of teens saying they could confidently identify a scam, when presented with a deal for a takeaway pizza, almost half (48%) thought it was real, when it was fake.
Similarly, 43% of respondents said they’ve clicked on a link that downloaded harmful software onto their device, while 41% have provided personal details. Elsewhere, more than a fifth (23%) didn’t know scammers could pretend to be from their favourite brand in order to defraud them, and 48% are worried about falling victim to a scam. It’s easy to see why.
O2’s Examples – Most Commonly Reported Text Scams (Jan 2025)
1. “Hello, I am from Tiktok Human Resources Department. We sincerely invite you to use your free time to watch TikTok videos and help to click like the videos. You can get paid by 300-800 pounds per day. We are waiting for you and look forward to working with you. Please contact us as soon as possible to get job details.”
2. “Good news! Your account has been credited with your December winnings. View them here: - To unsub - .”
3. “EVRIÔºöYours mail package was damaged during transportation, causing the address information to be lost and unable to be delivered. Please be sure to update the address in the link within 12 hours.”
Murray Mackenzie, Director of Fraud Prevention at O2, said:
“We know how convincing scammers’ messages can be with promises of too good to be true deals, discounts and job offers from well-known brands that tempt young people into clicking on dodgy links or parting with their money for items that never existed.
That’s why Virgin Media O2 is doing all it can to stop scammers in their tracks by blocking millions of suspected fraudulent text messages, and by arming parents and guardians with advice so they can confidently talk to teens about how to spot fraud attempts and to stay safe online.”
As part of its Find the Right Words campaign with online safety experts, Internet Matters, the organisations are providing parents and guardians with four tips to share with teens to help them swerve the scammers. These include:
- Checking the source: Whether it’s on social media, in a video game, or through email or messaging, it’s important to check the source is reliable.
- If a friend or follower sends a link from their account, verify it was, in fact, them by using a different platform, for example, in case their account was hacked.
- See a link from a random internet user? Go to the website a different way instead of clicking on the link, use a search engine to check its trustworthiness.
- Official logos don’t mean something came from that company.
- Keeping your personal information safe: If anyone online asks for personal information, payment details or any sort of action, be sure to confirm that it’s real before doing so.
- Platforms will not send emails to ask this kind of information, and no one on social media or in-game should either.
- Use different passwords for your accounts, use anti-virus software and, if something feels off, ask around and do some research.
- Stop! Think Fraud: While many online scams have become more sophisticated, there are some tell-tale signs to look out for that could suggest a scam. If something feels off or like it’s too good to be true, make sure you take time to look into it before clicking links or giving details.
- Spelling and grammatical errors.
- Few reviews or low ratings of an item.
- Comments from others calling something a scam.
- Poor design and layout.
- Expensive items for a very low price.
- Regular conversations: Be curious, proactive, and sensitive when talking to teens about online harms, like scams.
- Have these chats regularly in a relaxed and natural way – for example, when picking kids up for school, cooking dinner, or going to the weekly shop.
- Take an interest in what they’re doing when they’re online and try bringing up news stories or TV plotlines relating to internet safety to talk about what they’d do if a similar issue happened to one of their friends.
- Use your own experiences to talk about things that might go wrong online, and make sure they know they can talk to you if they’re upset about something.