Will we stop receiving commercial calls? No, but it will be harder to scam us
The Spanish government agrees on a package of measures that includes banning these calls from mobile numbers
Both companies and public entities will be prohibited from using a mobile number to make commercial calls. The objective of this measure, included in a recently approved ministerial order of the Spanish government, is to avoid identity theft scams that are carried out through calls or SMS.
This measure must be applied within a maximum period of three months, but this does not mean that we will stop receiving commercial calls: we will still receive them, but only from numbers specially assigned to do so. And a novelty: the 800 and 900 lines, which were normally for customer service, will now also be able to make these calls to customers. This has been agreed by an order of the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, which will appear in the BOE in the next few days and whose measures will come into force at the beginning of March.
The Minister for Digital Transformation, Óscar López, has made it clear in statements to the media that the measures also include the obligation for telecommunications operators to block calls and SMS with numbers that are not attributed to an end customer or an operator. It is assumed that if there are no real customers behind the call, we are facing signs of identity theft.
In addition, fraudulent calls that appear to be international and are actually made from the State will not be allowed, except for calls from customers who are roaming (what we know as roaming) and vice versa: operators will have to block foreign numbers that pretend to be Spanish telephones. Messages that are assigned to an alphanumeric code and not to a telephone number will also be blocked. In fact, the National Commission for Markets and Competition will have to create a database in which public or private entities must register if they want to use this type of message.
"Today we are taking a very important step," said López, and he referred to countries such as Finland, where they took "very similar" measures and reduced "90% of scams." Failure to comply with these measures is classified as a serious offence and is subject to a fine of up to 2 million euros, as explained by the Secretary General of Telecommunications, Digital Infrastructures and Digital Security, Matías González Martín.