Fife Council’s Trading Standards team is offering people the chance to have a free call blocker installed.

A call blocker is a device that filters out unwanted nuisance phone calls on landlines. It plugs into an existing phone line, and it can work alongside broadband and community alarm devices.

The units provide far greater control to the user in terms of which callers can get through to them, and it allows for a known contacts list to be set up. The device would help block out scam phone calls.

Scam phone calls come in many different forms. One common scam is when a fraudster will phone you pretending to be from the fraud team at your bank to say that there is suspicious activity on your account.

They then claim that there is a corrupt member of staff in your bank, and they need your help to identify them. This then results in them asking you to transfer funds into a ‘safe account’ or alternatively withdraw huge sums of cash from your account to be passed over to a fraudster in person.

Dawn Adamson, Fife Council Trading Standards’ manager, said: “I would strongly urge Fife residents who are being plagued by nuisance calls, or who know somebody else who is, to get in touch with us to request the installation of a free call blocker.

"They can do so by emailing us at Trading.Standards@Fife.Gov.Uk and giving full contact details so that one of our officers can get in touch to make arrangements and also give further details on how the devices work.”