Ofcom has launched a consultation on new rules and guidance for mobile network operators and business messaging aggregators, setting out the steps they will be expected to take to combat mobile messaging scams.

The consultation lays out the scale of such scams, as well as the work that both Ofcom and mobile operators have already undertaken to reduce their frequency. However, Ofcom is clear that more needs to be done as an estimated 100 million suspicious messages have been reported to mobile operators in the past year.

One of the principal reasons identified by Ofcom for why the measures that are currently in place are not as effective as they could be is a lack of consistency in applying counter-scam measures across the industry. Therefore, it is recommending a raft of additional new proposals, focussing both on situations where scammers acquire SIM cards to send messages (person-to-person or ‘P2P’ messages) and those where they imitate businesses to access their messaging services (so-called ‘application-to-person’ or ‘A2P’ messaging).

In both cases, new ‘General Conditions’ are proposed which will require mobile operators to, among other things, set volume limits on pay-as-you go SIM cards, conduct continual ‘Know Your Traffic’ checks to review account activity and investigate reports of fraud, and block numbers used by scammers.

The consultation sets out these proposals in detail and is accompanied by draft guidance designed to help providers understand how they can comply with the new rules.

The consultation closes on 28 January 2026, and can be read in full here.