A NUISANCE calls campaign has been launched to stop people falling victim to scams over the festive period.

Advice Direct Scotland, who run Scotland’s national consumer advice helpline, has launched the “Stop Scam Calls” campaign. They are encouraging people to activate the call blocker feature that comes free of charge with packages from BT, Sky, TalkTalk.

Most call blockers come free of charge and customers should not have to pay extra for the cover. The packages can block out numbers from abroad, withheld numbers and others that have been identified as suspicious.

Colin Mathieson, spokesperson for Advice Direct Scotland, said:

“For some people nuisance calls can be exactly that – but for more vulnerable individuals they can be extremely upsetting and lead to falling victim to fraud.

“There are many people under the impression that to block such calls coming through you either have to go to a lot of effort, access technology which is hard to understand, or pay a fee to someone.

“In fact, many major telecoms providers already have services included which block certain calls.

“This ‘Stop Scam Calls’ campaign seeks to alert people to this simple step in the hope that fewer will fall victim to this practice.

“We don’t want people to suffer needlessly and, at Christmas, many people will be at home and expecting phonecalls from relatives and loved ones – utilising this technology will at least ensure the wrong kind of calls won’t get through.

Readers who would like further advice from Advice Direct Scotland can contact them through their website here or by calling 0808 164 6000.