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关于Fiona

Modern language student from Warwick with interests in music, art and literature. I like to travel and discover new places and cultures. Contact

(English) Think phone spam isn’t a problem in the UK? Think again! Check out our annual report to see our latest research

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Dear tellows fellows,

This week we celebrate the release of our latest annual report!

Your tellows team would like to wish you a happy new year! The new decade officially started more than one week ago and we want to take the chance to thank you all for the support you showed to our website in the past year. So, how has 2019 been as far as phone calls are concerned? Find out in our new annual report!

The annual report contains information about spam trends during 2019, including information about caller type, user and usage stats. This is in addition to general information about the growth of tellows throughout the year, most notably on its social media platforms. Check out our blog article from December 2019 which contains all the useful stats about user activity on tellows.

Download the tellows Annual Report 2019

As compared to 2018, in 2019 harassment calls significantly decreased in terms of percentage (from 29% to 19%), but the proportion of calls coming from telemarketers and aggressive advertising has increased. However, more trustworthy numbers have also been reported on tellows, making them the most popular caller type recorded in the UK. Among the most searched numbers from last year are:

  • +441709357345 (search requests 113838, ratings 91), which is supposedly a number used by the telecommunication company Vodafone
  • +442078553116 (search requests 97080, ratings 98), supposedly identifiable with Amazon Delivery service
  • +441844398909 (search request 238744, ratings 85), supposedly EE.

All in all, in terms of caller types, UK users have been reporting more useful calls, even if almost 75% of all calls can be considered as “unwanted”.

In order to make the tellows experience better, last year our team tried to create more engagement with the users by publishing a second version of the tellows magazine in January and was more active on social media platforms.

What is tellows magazine? Briefly put, it is our own magazine available in e-book format which contains all the important information you need to protect yourself against unwanted calls and alleged fraud. The content ranges from general facts about spam calls to ways for reporting them. Download the magazine for free!

In August 2019 we also achieved an important goal: our downloads on Google Play Store reached 500K! In the last few months tellows has been busy updating the app for Android and was finally able to launch the new version in November with some major changes. How is it better? First of all, we made some new usability updates which make the app generally easier to use, thus ensuring our users have a better experience. More specifically, the app menu has been drastically changed and the settings menu has also been re-structured. Secondly, we have made it possible to view manually blocked numbers by adding the new entry “local scorelist”. Moreover, we introduced a new spam category, which is SMS spam, and now phone numbers can also be assigned to this new caller type. Finally, the app language could be manually changed directly in the app. As for aesthetics, we introduced the tellows man, who is there to introduce new users to the app when it is first downloaded on the mobile device.

At least twice a week we create a new post on Instagram about new spam trends, advices for protection from spam calls and also small curiosities about cultures all over Europe. Of course, the Facebook page remains really active by publishing articles and being ready to answer inquiries from customers.

The annual report 2019 gives you insights into the worldwide scam and spam reports and the top trends of 2019.

Download the tellows Annual Report 2019

With this annual report tellows is officially putting an end to 2019, nevertheless the achievements made during the last year are just going to keep us motivated for improving our service and guarantee all our users major protection against unwanted calls. Thanks for the support!

The tellows team

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(English) tellows Study 2019 – How active were tellows users in the UK?

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Dear tellows friends,

This December, tellows would like to share with you its 2019 study. In which country do you think tellows users were the most active during 2019? In November 2018 we published our first study about the amount of ratings users left on tellows.

We have collected information from January to November 2019 to update you on the latest developments in spam reporting on tellows. Check out the following diagrams to find out about rating trends in your home country, how these have changed compared to last year and how the figures compare to other countries! In the UK, almost 3 in every 1000 site visitors left a comment this year. There was also a mild increase in the total number of comments compared with 2018. Nevertheless, the users of Columbia were the most active with 7 in every 1000 users sharing information about unknown numbers in 2019.

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(English) Major Changes following the tellows Android App Redesign

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Hello tellows friends,

We at tellows have some exciting news: We have released a major app update!

Some of you may have been lucky enough to have used or seen the latest version already, as the update has been rolling out since the end of November. Check it out in the Play Store!

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(English) The Fake Amazon Prime Scam

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Hello tellows friends,

Think you already know everything about the latest phone scams? You’d be wrong. Scammers are constantly devising new ways to trick the public and in this blog we are going to introduce you to one of their newest tricks: The Amazon Prime Scam.

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(English) The Bank Transfer Scam

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Dear tellows friends,

Bank transfer fraud happens more often than you can imagine. Fraudsters imitate various offial organisations, including banks, to persuade you to move money out of your account and into their hands.

Scammers use manipulative methods to panic real people into handing over their money and details. Perhaps you receive a call or text telling you that your account has been ‘compromised’ and you need to move your money somewhere ‘secure’. Maybe you have to click a link inside a text message or email and log in to your online banking account to stop a transaction. Of course such messages are more often than not fraudulent, but they can look very realistic. Links in text messages may take you to a spoofed albeit realistic version of your bank’s website, making the fraud almost more believable.

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(English) Who do fraudsters target and why do we get caught out?

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Hello tellows friends,

For our blog this week, we thought it would be fun to do something different and give you a more general report about who fraudsters target and why we fall for scams.

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(English) Nuisance calls and PPI

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Hello tellows friends,

Yesterday (August 29th) was the deadline for submitting PPI claims. This marks the end of a period of around 10 years where those affected could seek compensation.

Given the widespread mis-selling of PPI, it became a goldmine for claims companies, all trying their luck to encourage consumers to make claims.

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(English) Scam calls on the increase, nuisance calls in decline

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Hello tellows friends,

Have you received fewer nuisance calls lately? Research by Ofcom would suggest so.

According to this Ofcom research, fewer nuisance calls are being made to UK landlines. So we can all breathe a sigh of relief, right? No, unfortunately not. Scam calls are still on the rise, and they now account for a much larger proportion of the nuisance calls received.

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(English) The latest ‘Press 1’ phone scam

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Hello tellows friends,

Who doesn’t worry about their money? It’s a completely rational concern. But what happens when scammers play on this feeling? In today’s blog, we will be introducing you to the latest “press 1 scam”, which seeks to exploit your fears and steal your money.

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(English) The ‘Tech Support’ Phone Scam that could clear out your Bank Account

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Hello tellows friends,

Today we ask you to consider: Is your computer really on the blink, or are you falling victim to a scammer?

It’s the oldest trick in the book. A stranger calls you from a number that you don’t recognise, claiming to be from a company that they actually have nothing to do with. A short while later you discover that money has been stolen from your bank account. But how do the scammers do it?


We first explored this type of scam last year and it is currently on the rise once again.

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