Besides ongoing public awareness campaigns via social media and online articles, the MCA is also active in the fight against scam communications through measures intended to safeguard trust in Maltese phone numbers, and corresponding efforts to prevent the misuse, unauthorised or fraudulent use of such numbers. It is worth noting that most scam communications towards Maltese numbers are received from abroad. 

Within this context, in April 2024, the MCA published a Decision Notice on Preventative Measures to Mitigate CLI Spoofing and Vishing Scams, which imposed the implementation of “anti-scam” blocking measures on local network operators that are first to receive traffic in Malta from overseas. As a result, as from 1 November 2024, some calls received from abroad are being “filtered out” and stopped from reaching end-users in Malta. So far, these measures are only targeting calls where the calling party number is a Maltese number from specific numbering ranges (namely, all numbering ranges except those starting with (+356) ‘4’, (+356) ‘7’ or (+356) ‘9’). 

These measures will contribute to a reduction in scam calls that rely on spoofing Maltese numbers, especially well-known Maltese phone numbers belonging to trusted entities such as banks, government departments, law enforcement authorities or postal operators.