UK cracks down on cold calls and text scams offering financial products

Technology allows fraudsters to target thousands of mobile phone numbers simultaneously with text scams. Photograph: Tero Vesalainen/Getty

Cold calls offering financial products will be banned as part of a government crackdown on fraud following evidence that millions of people are being targeted each week.

Once the ban is in force, anyone being offered phoney cryptocurrency schemes or fraudulent insurance can assume they are a scam.