Ofcom Finalizes Rules to Block UK Scam Texts

Ofcom finalized new rules and guidance on scam text messages on July 15, 2026. They cover ordinary SMS and MMS; coverage notes they appear aimed mainly at SMS rather than apps like WhatsApp, RCS or iMessage.

For person-to-person texting, mobile operators must cap how many messages a pay-as-you-go SIM can send, collect scam reports from customers and anti-fraud bodies, stop numbers linked to scams from sending messages, and detect and block scam messages in transit. These rules take effect on January 18, 2027.

For business (A2P) messaging, which is how most verification codes are sent, operators and aggregators must run Know Your Customer checks on senders, check alphanumeric sender IDs against that information to stop fake ones, restrict protected and generic sender IDs, and monitor traffic. These rules take effect on July 15, 2027.

Ofcom also included safeguards: users can challenge a decision to block a number or message, and providers must identify and fix messages blocked in error. Ofcom did not require every legitimate message to get through, so stricter filtering may occasionally delay or stop a genuine code.

For people verifying accounts with a UK number, codes from real services should keep arriving, but the brand name shown as the sender should become more trustworthy over time. As always, a verification code is meant for your own legitimate account and nobody else.

What to do

If a UK verification code never arrives, request it again or try the call option, and treat any text asking you to share a code as a scam.

Sources

• ISPreview - Ofcom introduce new UK rules to tackle mobile messaging scams
• Ofcom - New rules to thwart text message scammers