Stop Scams UK
Stop Scams UK is a UK not-for-profit membership organisation that enables banks, telecoms operators and technology platforms to collaborate on real-time fraud intelligence sharing, operating programmes like the 159 phone service and Blocked SIMs initiative to disrupt scams at source.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2020
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Stop Scams UK does
Stop Scams UK is a London-based not-for-profit membership organisation founded in 2020 that facilitates cross-sector fraud prevention collaboration between UK financial services, telecommunications, and technology firms. It serves 40 member organisations, including major banks (TSB, NatWest, Lloyds, Barclays, Monzo, Revolut, Starling, Santander), all UK mobile network operators (BT, Virgin Media O2, VodafoneThree), and global technology platforms (Meta, Google, LinkedIn, TikTok, Amazon, Match Group), coordinating industry action against scams targeting UK consumers.
The organisation's core products include the 159 Phone Service (a short-code consumer verification line covering over 99% of UK retail bank current accounts), the Blocked SIMs Programme (cross-sector intelligence sharing on misused SIM cards that achieved 100% UK MNO participation), Meta FIRE (a threat intelligence exchange with Meta that has enabled removal of approximately 20,000 scammer accounts), and the BBC Scam Safe awareness partnership. The underlying technology is a JavaScript-based, AWS-hosted real-time fraud intelligence sharing platform used internally by members, with members contributing independent AI/ML capabilities (e.g., BT's automated systems blocking 3 million scams per day).
Stop Scams UK operates as a company limited by guarantee funded entirely through membership subscriptions paid by its 40 member firms, with no venture capital or private equity involvement. Pricing is not publicly disclosed. The governance model is sector-neutral and member-driven, with the board comprising senior leaders from member organisations and full endorsement from key regulators (Ofcom, FCA, ICO). Distribution is exclusively domestic (UK-centric) with outreach to Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore through international forums, and the organisation does not sell products directly to end consumers — instead delivering fraud prevention through member organisations and the publicly accessible 159 service.
Stop Scams UK firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Stop Scams UK
- Legal name
- Stop Scams UK Ltd
- Website
- https://stopscamsuk.org.uk
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2020
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Stop Scams UK is a UK not-for-profit membership organisation that enables banks, telecoms operators and technology platforms to collaborate on real-time fraud intelligence sharing, operating programmes like the 159 phone service and Blocked SIMs initiative to disrupt scams at source.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Stop Scams UK industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Cross-Sector Fraud Prevention Services
- NAICS
- Investigation and Security Services (5616)
- SIC
- Finance Services (6199)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Fraud Detection & Prevention (payments fraud, account takeover, scams) (FSAGAFAE)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Payments Fraud & Chargeback Prevention (HDADALAE)
Keywords
Where Stop Scams UK is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
Stop Scams UK business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Membership Subscriptions: Stop Scams UK is funded by member subscriptions from banks, telecoms, and tech firms. As a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, revenue comes from annual membership fees paid by member organizations.
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels6 records
Stop Scams UK product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Stop Scams UK is a not-for-profit membership organisation that operates fraud prevention programmes and intelligence-sharing infrastructure for its members across UK banking, telecoms, and technology sectors. Its sellable offerings include the 159 short-code phone service (connecting consumers safely with their bank), the Blocked SIMs Programme (cross-sector intelligence sharing on compromised SIMs), the Meta FIRE threat intelligence exchange, and a real-time data-sharing platform hosted on AWS. Members include 40 firms and participation covers 100% of UK MNOs and 99.7% of UK retail banking providers.
Product overview
Stop Scams UK is a not-for-profit membership organization that operates a portfolio of fraud prevention services rather than a single product. Its core offerings include: (1) the 159 phone service, which provides consumers a safe route to contact their bank during suspicious calls; (2) the Blocked SIMs programme, which enables cross-sector intelligence sharing on compromised SIM cards used by scammers; (3) Meta FIRE, a threat intelligence exchange with Meta for takedown of fraudulent accounts; (4) an internal scam intelligence data-sharing platform built on JavaScript/AWS; and (5) the BBC Scam Safe awareness partnership. These services work together to create a system-wide understanding of fraud problems, enabling members from banking, telecoms, and technology sectors to detect and disrupt scams before they reach consumers.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- 159 Phone Service A short-code telephone service (dial 159) that connects UK consumers safely and directly with their bank when they receive unexpected or suspicious calls about financial matters. The number cannot be spoofed or impersonated and covers over 99% of UK retail bank current accounts with 27 participating brands.
- Blocked SIMs Programme A landmark cross-sector initiative uniting financial services, telecoms, and online technology platforms to share intelligence on SIMs linked to criminal networks, treating compromised SIMs as a root signal for wider criminal activity to neutralise fraud upstream.
- Meta FIRE (Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange) A first-of-its-kind threat intelligence sharing programme enabling financial institutions to share intelligence directly with Meta, allowing Meta to speed up takedown of fraudulent accounts and strengthen fraud detection capabilities across platforms.
- Scam Intelligence & Data Sharing Platform A JavaScript-based data-sharing platform hosted on Amazon Web Services that enables Stop Scams UK members to share fraud intelligence in real time across the Financial Services, Tech and Telco sectors. Eight fraud prevention initiatives are active across the ecosystem ingesting significant cross-sector data volumes weekly.
- BBC Scam Safe Partnership A major public awareness partnership with the BBC featuring Scam Safe Week, bringing together BBC's national reach and Stop Scams UK's cross-sector expertise to help people spot scams, avoid fraud tactics, and access trusted help.
Quantifiable outcome
- Over 1 million calls made to 159 service, with over 1,300 calls received daily
- +8 more outcomes
Companies that use Stop Scams UK
Customer profileNamed customers21 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Stop Scams UK technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability3 records
Feature4 records
Stop Scams UK partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
13 partnerships are on record, tiered core, supporting and strategic.
- Virgin Media O2coreVirgin Media O2 joined Stop Scams UK in meeting with Minister for Fraud to discuss continued industry collaboration on tackling fraud. Participates in Blocked SIMs programme alongside BT and VodafoneThree, achieving 100% MNO coverage. Has blocked over one billion scam messages to date.
- MetacoreMeta operates FIRE (Fraud Intelligence Reciprocal Exchange) programme with Stop Scams UK members. NatWest and Metro Bank were first UK banks to participate in pilot. Meta removed approximately 20,000 scammer accounts from 185 URLs shared during initial pilot. Expansion announced in September 2024.
- BT GroupcoreBT led the sector in developing the Blocked SIMs initiative, sharing blocked SIM data with Stop Scams UK ecosystem. Blocking 3 million scams per day on network. Developed 159 service and led the spearheading cross-sector collaboration group.
- VodafoneThreecoreVodafoneThree joined Blocked SIMs programme alongside BT and Virgin Media O2. In 2025, blocked over 139 million fraudulent SMS. Rachel Andrews leads Corporate Security & Fraud efforts.
- LinkedIncoreLinkedIn joined Blocked SIMs programme alongside Meta and Match Group to use SIM intelligence to protect users and purge fake accounts created using PAYG SIMs.
- Match GroupcoreMatch Group participates in Blocked SIMs programme to protect users on dating platforms from fake profiles created using diverted UK SIM cards. Committed to data exchange initiatives to detect novel fraud actors.
- TikTokcoreTikTok joined Blocked SIMs programme in March 2026 to use intelligence to combat fraud and stop bad actors. Joins existing tech participants Meta and Match Group.
- ANNA MoneysupportingANNA Money participates in Blocked SIMs programme as part of financial services sector collaboration. Boris Diakonov, Co-CEO, emphasizes importance of industries working together to close loopholes.
- National Crime Agency (NCA)coreNCA originally discovered diversion of UK SIM cards following seizure at Thai border. Works with Stop Scams UK on National Economic Crime Centre initiatives. Provides oversight for 2026 National Fraud Strategy.
- UNODC/InterpolstrategicHost the Global Fraud Summit where Stop Scams UK serves as pathfinder for global action against fraud. Stop Scams UK pledged to offer practical insight to countries seeking to build business case for cross-sector collaboration.
- Martin Lewis / MoneySavingExpertsupportingMartin Lewis's MoneySavingExpert team highlighted the 159 hotline as secure way for UK banking customers to verify suspicious calls. Promotes 159 as easy-to-remember number for scam protection.
- BBCstrategicBBC partnered with Stop Scams UK for Scam Safe Week (22-28 November 2025), major public awareness initiative reaching audiences across BBC TV, radio, online and social channels with practical scam advice.
- WhatsAppsupportingWhatsApp and BT collaborative efforts facilitated through Stop Scams UK to stop scammers from reaching consumers on UK's most popular messaging platform.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Stop Scams UK competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Visa (Risk & Identity Solutions): Visa operates Visa Risk Manager, Visa Token Service, and other fraud-prevention capabilities used by issuing and acquiring banks globally. Visa is a member of Stop Scams UK and offers comparable payments-fraud prevention infrastructure at a global scale, positioning it as both a partner and a broad incumbent peer.
- Feedzai: Feedzai is a financial crime detection platform offering transaction monitoring, fraud prevention, and AML capabilities to global banks and payment providers. It serves financial-sector customers comparable to Stop Scams UK's banking members but addresses fraud at the institutional level rather than through cross-sector intelligence sharing.
- UK Finance: UK Finance is the trade association for the UK banking and financial services sector, operating fraud prevention initiatives including the APP fraud reimbursement framework and intelligence-sharing programmes. It is comparable to Stop Scams UK as a sector-coordination body, but operates exclusively within banking rather than tri-sector.
- BioCatch: BioCatch provides behavioural biometric fraud detection for banks and fintechs, analysing user behaviour to identify scams, account takeover, and social engineering attacks. It serves many of the same financial institutions that participate in Stop Scams UK but operates as a commercial technology vendor rather than a cross-sector collaboration platform.
- Sift: Sift is a digital trust and safety platform that uses AI to detect fraud, account takeover, and content abuse for global enterprises. It serves large financial institutions, fintechs, and marketplaces, overlapping with Stop Scams UK's member base on the technology side, though it is a commercial vendor rather than a non-profit coalition.
- Mastercard (Ethoca / Identity): Mastercard operates fraud-prevention services including Ethoca (merchant-consumer dispute alerts) and Mastercard Identity (digital identity verification). As a global payments network operator with deep banking relationships, Mastercard is a broad incumbent addressing fraud at scale across many of the same institutions Stop Scams UK serves.
Regional players
- Action Fraud: Action Fraud is the UK's national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre, operated on behalf of the police. While it is a government-funded entity rather than an industry coalition, it plays a complementary role in the UK fraud-prevention ecosystem by aggregating consumer-reported fraud data that industry players (including Stop Scams UK's members) leverage.
Direct peers
- Cifas: Cifas is a UK-based not-for-profit fraud prevention membership organization that operates the National Fraud Database, enabling cross-sector fraud intelligence sharing between banks, insurers, telecoms, and government. It is the closest structural analogue to Stop Scams UK in the UK market, with a longer operating history and broader member base.
- Cyber Defence Alliance: The Cyber Defence Alliance is a UK-based, cross-sector intelligence-sharing partnership between financial services, law enforcement, and government agencies focused on cyber-enabled fraud. It is structurally comparable to Stop Scams UK as a trusted, sector-neutral collaboration model for sharing threat intelligence across institutional boundaries.
- Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA): GASA is a global non-profit that brings together governments, consumer protection organizations, and industry to combat scams worldwide. It hosts the annual Global Anti-Scam Summit and operates scam-fighter awards — the same award ceremony where Stop Scams UK's Blocked SIMs programme won. GASA is a direct global peer in mission and structure.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Stop Scams UK social profiles
Digital presenceStop Scams UK financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Stop Scams UK leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles6 records
Stop Scams UK funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Stop Scams UK M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Stop Scams UK
What does Stop Scams UK do?
Stop Scams UK is a not-for-profit membership organisation that operates fraud prevention programmes and intelligence-sharing infrastructure for its members across UK banking, telecoms, and technology sectors. Its sellable offerings include the 159 short-code phone service (connecting consumers safely with their bank), the Blocked SIMs Programme (cross-sector intelligence sharing on compromised SIMs), the Meta FIRE threat intelligence exchange, and a real-time data-sharing platform hosted on AWS. Members include 40 firms and participation covers 100% of UK MNOs and 99.7% of UK retail banking providers.
Is Stop Scams UK a public or private company?
Stop Scams UK is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Stop Scams UK founded?
Stop Scams UK was founded in 2020. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Stop Scams UK based?
Stop Scams UK is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does Stop Scams UK make money?
One revenue line is on record: membership Subscriptions.
Who are Stop Scams UK's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Visa (Risk & Identity Solutions), Feedzai, UK Finance, BioCatch, Sift and Mastercard (Ethoca / Identity). Action Fraud is listed as a regional player. Direct peers are Cifas, Cyber Defence Alliance and Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA).
Does Stop Scams UK have an API?
No public API is recorded for Stop Scams UK.
What industry is Stop Scams UK in?
Stop Scams UK's product category is Cross-Sector Fraud Prevention Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAGAFAE, Fraud Detection & Prevention (payments fraud, account takeover, scams), with a secondary code of HDADALAE, Payments Fraud & Chargeback Prevention. Its NAICS code is 5616 and its SIC code is 6199.