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Blocked SIMs programme has won the Cross-Sector Collaboration Award at the Global Anti-Scams Summit, recognising tri-sector collaboration to dismantle a major international gateway used by organised fraudsters. 

Selected by both an independent panel of expert judges from the United Nations, BBC, cross industry leaders as well as the Summit attendees at the ceremony in Lisbon, the award celebrates Blocked SIMs as the global pathfinder of cross-sector collaboration in international fraud prevention.

An unprecedented cross-sector collaboration, mobile network operators BT, Virgin Media O2, and VodafoneThree work with financial services ANNA Money, Lloyds, NatWest, Metro Bank, Monzo, Revolut, and Santander, alongside global technology platforms LinkedIn, Match Group, Meta and TikTok. The Blocked SIMs programme showcases industry working in partnership with law enforcement and the government agencies through Stop Scams UK.  

The Blocked SIMs programme directly targets a fraud ecosystem where criminals rely on prepaid UK SIM cards which have been smuggled overseas solely to receive one-time passcodes (OTPs), allowing them to generate massive networks of untraceable, legitimate-looking fake online profiles. 

Blocked SIMs programme unites UK Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), finance sector, and global tech giants so that they collaborate in treating compromised SIMs not just as a dead phone line, but as a “root signal” for wider criminal activity. The data reveals hidden networks of fraud and industries have been able to adapt their business practices to shut down the fraud networks. Telecoms changed their financial terms to prevent prepaid SIMs from receiving free OTPs, while tech platforms adapted algorithms to purge fake accounts, 

Blocked SIMs shows that we need more than data sharing to deliver results. We have built an ecosystem of industries who work together, understand each other and collaborate to disrupt sophisticated criminal operations.  

Triggered by the discovery of UK SIM cards by the Thai Royal Police, our members have shown real innovation and commitment to created a whole-system approach. Together, we have effectively turned millions of SIM cards from being criminal assets into useless pieces of plastic.

Mark Tierney, Chief Executive of Stop Scams UK

Stop Scams UK has been selected as winner of the Scam Fighter Award for Best Cross-Sector Collaboration by the Jury. I fully understand their choice. Stop Scams UK has shown success in bringing together all stakeholders from the financial, telecom and technology sector and their Blocked SIMs programme shows clear results. The next step for Stop Scams UK is to get the word out worldwide that this initiative can be copy and pasted anywhere, and I hope they will join our Scam Fighter Awards again once this milestone has been achieved.

Jorij Abraham, Managing Director at GASA

SSUK gives thanks BT Group and the National Crime Agency, as well Virgin Media O2, VodafoneThree, ANNA Money, LinkedIn, Lloyds Banking Group, Match Group, Meta, Metro Bank, Monzo, NatWest, Revolut, Santander and TikTok.

Find out more about programme on the BlockedSIMs page and previous press release.