ALMOST 1,800 nuisance phone calls made to homes of dementia sufferers have been blocked as part of a pilot scheme in East Yorkshire.

East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s trading standards team are taking part in a national call blocker trial, which is being run in conjunction with Friends against Scams and trueCall.

The scheme is aimed at those people who have a family member in the home who has been diagnosed with dementia and involves a small device being fitted to their home telephone line.

Those taking part in the scheme can choose the level of filtering – from a basic level which helps disrupt the scam or nuisance callers to only numbers approved by the person, such as family and friends, able to get through.

There are currently eight devices being trialled in the East Riding of Yorkshire Council area and between July and November, almost 1,800 nuisance calls were blocked with people reporting they were no longer receiving scam phone calls. The data collected by the device can then be sent for analysis to help the national scams team gather information to investigate those making the scam or nuisance phone calls.