AI-generated image: a hand holding a black smartphone over a light wooden table, the screen showing an incoming call from a blurred foreign number with red and green answer buttons, a speckled coffee mug, a candle and a window onto a grey winter lake with birches in the background
Illustration: an incoming call from an unknown foreign number on a smartphone. (AI-generated illustration.)

Block foreign calls in Finland – how to stop scam calls

About 4 min read

News

Finnish operator Elisa has made its foreign-number block more flexible: you can block foreign calls and still let through, say, a sister living in Sweden. The story was among the most-read on the Finnish news aggregator Ampparit on Tuesday, as many people are tired of unknown callers from Italy or Spain. We checked what each Finnish operator and your own phone can actually do.

Key facts

  • According to Elisa, more than 170,000 customers use the block, which has stopped 1.6 million calls, up to 20,000 a day
  • Elisa’s instructions allow up to ten permitted countries or numbers in total
  • The block looks at the number, not the location: a Finnish number gets through even when calling from abroad
  • According to Telia, almost 40 per cent of calls from abroad to Finland in early 2025 were scams
  • According to Traficom, from 2 Nov 2026 unverified SMS sender names are changed to “Roskaposti” (spam) or the message is blocked

What Elisa’s change means

Since the end of October, the block has been included in all Elisa Liittymäturva subscriptions and is switched on in the OmaElisa self-service. The new part is the allow list: you can add a country code such as +46, or a single number in international format. Elisa made the block available to customers on 25 August 2025, although the timeline in its press release mentions July 2025.

Telia and DNA: warnings, not a full block

  • Telia said on its Telia Yhteisö community forum that its subscriptions have no setting to block all foreign calls. The free scam call guard included in all subscriptions blocks known scam numbers, hides numbers used in call-back scams and warns you if you dial a suspected number.
  • DNA‘s Numerovahti shows an on-screen warning about a possible scam, but according to DNA it does not block the call. It comes with the new Huoleton Plus subscriptions. DNA says it blocked more than 4.2 million calls from known scam numbers in a year.

Why foreign numbers in particular?

A Traficom regulation has blocked calls from abroad disguised as Finnish landline numbers since July 2022 and as Finnish mobile numbers since October 2023. A spoofed Finnish number no longer gets through, so scammers now call openly from foreign numbers. Traficom considers a similar shift possible for text messages.

Your phone’s own settings

  • iPhone: according to Apple, the Phone settings let you silence unknown callers so the call goes to voicemail. The downside: a courier or doctor gets silenced too.
  • Android: Google’s Phone app has caller ID and spam protection that filters suspected scam calls. Manufacturers’ own apps usually have something similar in their blocking settings.

The Hilavitkutin tip

If you don’t expect calls from abroad, an operator-level block is the most effective and effortless protection. Add relatives living abroad to the allow list first, and remember that a foreign web shop or hotel might call at just that moment. The most important rule is still the old one: never give your online banking credentials to anyone over the phone.

Read also

Sources

  1. Iltalehti / Mikrobitti (3.11.2026): Tämä muutos koskee 170 000 Elisan asiakasta (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
  2. Elisa, tiedote 30.10.2026: Toivottu uusi ominaisuus ulkomaisista numeroista saapuvien puhelujen estoon (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
  3. Elisa: Ulkomaisista numeroista tulevien puheluiden esto (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
  4. Elisa: Aktivering av Liittymäturva egenskaper (sallittujen maiden ja numeroiden ohje) (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
  5. Ilta-Sanomat / Digitoday: Elisa – ulkomailta tulevien puhelujen estoon muutos (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
  6. Elisa OmaYhteisö (25.8.2025): Uusi ominaisuus liittymäturvaan – estä puhelut ulkomaisista numeroista (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
  7. Nexin (30.10.2026): Elisa laajentaa ulkomailta tulevien puheluiden estoa (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
  8. Telia Yhteisö: Ulkomailta tulevien puheluiden esto (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
  9. Telia, tiedote 2025: Alkuvuonna liki 40 prosenttia ulkomailta Suomeen saapuneista soitoista oli huijauspuheluita (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
  10. DNA, tiedote 27.5.2026: DNA:n liittymät auttavat tunnistamaan huijaus- ja massapuhelut (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
  11. Traficom: Määräyksen velvoitteet voimaan – jopa 200 000 huijauspuhelua estetään päivässä (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
  12. Traficom: Roskaposti-merkintä tulee tekstiviesteihin (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
  13. Traficom: Huijausviestien torjunta tehostuu edelleen (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
  14. Apple Support: Manage unknown callers on iPhone (accessed 3 Nov 2026)
  15. Google Phone app Help: Use caller ID & spam protection (accessed 3 Nov 2026)