Government seeks mandatory blocking of Estonia‑number spoofing scam calls

Justice and Digital Minister Liisa Pakosta has proposed new rules that would force telecom operators to filter and block foreign scam calls posing as Estonian numbers.

The minister explained that the main goal is to impose obligations on telecom operators that protect people from calls originating abroad, aiming to curb phone‑based financial fraud.

"Call traffic is supposed to be a call between two identified parties, not a situation where one party is somewhere who‑knows‑where and displays a false number as if they were calling from Estonia. Such things can and should be legally prohibited or restricted," Pakosta said.

Telecom operators would be required to immediately block calls in which a foreign caller imitates an Estonian number (spoofing).

"Telecom operators must use filters so that people using Estonian numbers do not see such calls at all, or do not receive calls that appear to come from an Estonian number but in reality originate abroad," the minister explained.

She noted that major telecom operators such as Telia, Tele2, and Elisa already have such solutions in place, and the changes will primarily affect smaller operators — of which there are 27 in Estonia in addition to the three large ones.

Pakosta also acknowledged that even if the state and companies try to block scam calls using various technologies, it is impossible to stop them completely.

"Unfortunately, history shows that new methods are constantly being invented. [---] Suspicious traffic and technical solutions must be monitored, and call‑traffic filtering must be applied against new possible threats as well," Pakosta said, adding that once the draft is adopted, the market situation will become uniform for all service providers.