Cold calling blocking to be installed for vulnerable

A £50,000 fund has been announced to provide callblockers to those most at risk from nuisance calls.

Trading Standards Scotland will install 500 callblockers for vulnerable people over the next year with the help of the Scottish Government cash.

The fund is part of an action plan announced by Economy Secretary Keith Brown to try to raise awareness about scam callers.

Analysis of nine million calls received over a three year period found that Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen were in the top five UK cities receiving the highest percentages of nuisance calls.

Mr Brown said: “Nuisance calls disproportionately affect people in Scotland. They often target the elderly and the vulnerable and have the potential to be very harmful. Although there is no easy solution to this problem, our action plan contains a range of measures to raise awareness of nuisance calls, make it easier for people to identify them.”

Susan Mcphee, head of policy for Citizens Advice Scotland, said: “Nuisance calls include any kind of unwanted sales or marketing call. People find these irritating or even distressing. But in this campaign our message is that you really can fight back.”