Effectiveness of actions to reduce harm from nuisance calls in Scotland

Research commissioned to analyse the impact of actions set out in the Nuisance Calls Commission action plan, and to examine the outcomes of past interventions.


Annex E: Evidence on consumer attitudes to nuisance calls

As well as the annual landline nuisance call diary survey (2013-2017), Ofcom has commissioned many omnibus surveys to monitor consumers’ recalled experiences of nuisance calls in the four weeks preceding the survey. In the March 2015 and December 2015 Consumer Concerns Surveys, respondents were asked about their behaviour in relation to nuisance calls, the answers to which provide useful evidence for this paper. Some of these are reproduced here for convenient reference.

Q.30A Does your main home landline phone have caller display?

March 2015: 47% yes, 52% no; December 2015: 48% yes, 51% no.

Q.31 If you have it, do you usually look at the caller display before deciding whether to answer your phone?

March 2015 December 2015
Home phone Mobile Home phone Mobile
Always 62% 60% 61% 62%
Sometimes 22% 17% 23% 17%
Never 15% 23% 16% 21%

Q.32 How often do you receive calls that you want e.g. from friends, family or companies that you want to speak to?

March 2015 December 2015
Home phone Mobile Home phone Mobile
Every day 35% 58% 36% 60%
A few times a week 36% 27% 34% 26%
A few times a month 12% 6% 12% 6%
Less than once a month 6% 3% 7% 3%
Never 9% 6% 9% 5%

Q.34 Are you aware of call blocking technology i.e. a device or service to block\ stop unwanted calls on your landline phone?

March 2015: 65% Yes, 33% No; December 2015: 68% Yes, 30% No

Q.35 As a result of receiving unwanted calls from companies or organisations, have you, or someone else in your household, done [either of] the following?

a) Signed up with\ put your landline number on the Telephone Preference Service ( TPS)\ do not call register:

b) Got call blocking technology on your landline - i.e. a device or service to block\stop unwanted calls on your landline phone (e.g. a TrueCall device, a BT call blocker phone, services provided by your landline provider like anonymous call reject, incoming call blocker or last caller barring) / Used settings (if available) on your mobile handset or downloaded an app to block calls)

March 2015 December 2015
Home phone Mobile Home phone Mobile
Signed up with TPS 21% 7% 21% 7%
Used blocking technology 9% 10% 9% 10%
Neither 71% 83% 71% 82%

Q.36 And when you receive an unwanted call from an organisation or company on your home landline phone do you ever report it to an official organisation (e.g. Ofcom or the Information Commissioner's Office) or your landline provider?

March 2015 December 2015
Home phone Mobile Home phone Mobile
Always 2% 1% 1% 1%
Nearly always - - - -
Sometimes 4% 2% 4% 2%
Rarely 6% 3% 5% 3%
Never 78% 78% 80% 79%
No unwanted calls 8% 13% 7% 13%

Q.37 When your phone rings, which of these do you REGULARLY DO in order to avoid\not have to answer unwanted calls from companies or organisations?

March 2015 December 2015
Home phone Mobile Home phone Mobile
I rely on my answerphone to take a message 14% 8% 14% 9%
I do not answer the phone to numbers that I do not know 14% 29% 13% 31%
I do not answer the phone if I am not expecting a call 11% 11% 10% 12%
I do not answer the phone at certain times of the day and\ or evening 9% 5% 9% 7%
I do not answer the phone to numbers that I recognise but do not want to answer (e.g. a utility company - we do not mean friends or family) 6% 14% 6% 13%
I switch ringtone down\off so I am not disturbed by unwanted calls when it rings 3% 7% 3% 6%
I unplug my landline phone so you do not receive calls on it/ I only have my mobile phone switched on when I want to make a call or am expecting a call 2% 2% 3% 2%
I let it ring and do not answer Not asked Not asked - Not asked
Other 1% 1% 1% 1%
None of these (I always answer the phone when it rings) 47% 37% 48% 37%

Q.38 Why have you not done anything to try to avoid unwanted calls from companies or organisations on your phone?

March 2015 December 2015
Home phone Mobile Home phone Mobile
Haven't thought of doing anything 22% 21% 20% 19%
I do not get enough of these calls for it to be necessary 17% 18% 18% 18%
Too much hassle 15% 17% 17% 16%
I don't know what to do to stop them 10% 10% 10% 8%
I do not mind receiving these types of calls 6% 5% 7% 5%
I don't think anything would work 6% 8% 7% 8%
I do not get any unwanted calls 6% 12% 8% 15%
I am worried about missing an important call 5% 5% 7% 7%
Technology or services to stop them is too expensive 4% Not asked 2% Not asked
Other 7% 2% 5% 2%
Don’t know 10% 10% 9% 9%

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