Blocked SIMs programme recognised for pioneering cross-sector innovation

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Blocked SIMs programme recognised for pioneering cross-sector innovation

Blocked SIMs programme has won Best Private/Third Sector Initiative at the Tackling Economic Crime Awards 2026, recognising the pioneering collaboration between the UK’s telecommunications, financial services and global tech sectors. 

Blocked SIMs tackles the criminal use of UK prepaid SIM cards to create fake online accounts. By sharing intelligence on compromised SIMs across industries, telecoms can block them, while enabling banks and technology platforms to identify and take action against connected fraudulent accounts and profiles. It means one piece of intelligence can be used across sectors to disrupt the wider fraud network, helping stop scammers before they reach consumers. 

The initiative brings together 100% of the UK’s mobile network operators (BT Group, Virgin Media O2 and VodafoneThree) as well as Gamma, with the tech sector (Meta, Match Group, TikTok and LinkedIn) and financial services (ANNA Money, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, Metro Bank, Monzo, NatWest Group, Revolut, Santander, True Potential and Wise).  The programme is also supported by the National Crime Agency, bringing industry and law enforcement together to strengthen the collective response to fraud.  

As of November 2026, Stop Scams UK has delivered over 20 million shares of Blocked SIMs data.

Commenting on the win, Mark Tierney, Chief Executive of Stop Scams UK, said:  

“The Blocked SIMs programme proves what is possible when industries stop tackling fraud in isolation and go after the criminals networks together. Stop Scams UK members have turned shared intelligence into action at scale, and this award is recognition of what they have built together. But we are only just getting started, the more organisations we bring into this model the harder we can make it for fraudsters to operate in the UK.

Find out more about programme here.