Enel on the front line to protect consumers from telephone scams

Answering a call from an unknown number has become, for many, a far from reassuring experience. More and more often, in fact, phone calls arrive from apparently reliable numbers, but which conceal real telephone scams.  According to Codacons, millions of Italian receive harassing phone calls. And it is not only the users who pay the consequences, but also the companies whose names are misused.

The problem of scam calls is therefore an increasingly urgent one, not only for the protection of individuals, but also for the entire Italian economic and production system. According to data from the Privacy Authority, about 80% of unsolicited calls come precisely from fake and untraceable numbers, with harmful effects on consumer confidence and the reputation of the companies involved.

Those behind these scams resort to increasingly deceptive means, and for some time now an even more sophisticated technique has been used: spoofing. This method allows a different phone number to appear on the recipient's device from the one actually used, making it more difficult to detect fraud. Often, these fraudsters pose as operators of well-known and reliable companies, such as Enel, with the aim of stealing personal data and inducing victims to sign fraudulent contracts.

In 2024 alone, our company received as many as 9,000 reports of scam phone calls that illicitly exploited its name. This was a serious situation, which prompted us to file numerous complaints with the judicial authorities.

Enel has long been at the forefront of the fight against aggressive telemarketing and phone scams. Our calls are only made from recognisable and re-contactable landline numbers and are preceded by prior communication to customers by text. On our website, a dedicated section is available to allow customers to check whether a number actually belongs to an official Enel channel and, if not, to allow us to initiate the necessary checks and assess the appropriate action with the competent authorities.

Per contrastare il fenomeno del telemarketing aggressivo, la stessa l’Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM) aveva previsto una serie di misure volte, proprio, a consentire, all’utente, di intercettare le chiamate a scopo commerciale: per questo motivo, infatti, era stato introdotto l’obbligo di utilizzare il prefisso unico – 0844 – per chiamate di tipo promozionale. Tuttavia, questa misura, ha presentato alcune criticità: i call center possono comunque utilizzare altri numeri, purché siano identificabili e richiamabili, il che limita l’efficacia del prefisso. Il problema è ancor più evidente nel caso degli operatori illegali, che spesso ignorano del tutto la normativa.

To combat the problem of aggressive telemarketing, the Authority for Communications Guarantees (AGCOM) had set out a series of measures aimed precisely at enabling the user to intercept calls for commercial purposes: for this reason, in fact, the obligation to use the unique prefix - 0844 - was introduced for calls of a promotional nature. This measure, however, presented some critical issues: call centres can still use other numbers, as long as they are identifiable and callable, which limits the effectiveness of the prefix. The problem is even more pronounced in the case of illegal operators, who often ignore these laws altogether.

In the last few weeks, AGCOM, urged by several parties, has accelerated the timetable to close the technical round table, which was initiated last month, and to issue a resolution on spoofing. The measure, published on 19 May, requires telecommunications operators to block calls with spoofed Italian numbers from abroad, upstream, preventing them from reaching their end recipients. In particular, AGCOM expects spoofed calls from fixed numbers (geographic and non-geographic) to be blocked by August, and those from mobile numbers by November.

This solution has been in use for some time in other countries and has shown encouraging results: in the UK, for example, the Office of Communications (an independent regulator for communications companies) has imposed specific blocking measures on telephone operators, which have already drastically reduced phone scams. France has also adopted advanced technological solutions such as the STIR/SHAKEN system, which makes it possible to identify and block forged numbers at an early stage.

The solution introduced by AGCOM is an important building block to curb the problem structurally. The aim is twofold: to guarantee people the peace of mind of answering the phone without any fear of scams or aggressive business practices, and at the same time to safeguard the market by protecting businesses that operate fairly and whose reputation is often compromised by the actions of unfair and abusive operators.

Our company will also continue to be at the forefront of this battle, with the aim of protecting the trust and security of its customers. Protecting customers is not only a technical imperative, but an institutional duty and social responsibility, which requires the involvement of all actors in the telecommunications sector.