Having lived in the UK and now the US, the problem is definitely more pronounced over here. In the UK I was receiving a spam call maybe once a week at most. In the US I was getting about 2-3 a week on a pretty new number before blocking all unknown calls.
I assume it's simply more worthwhile to create a fraudulent scheme aimed at a larger population with more potential marks.
To be fair much of that reputation comes from back in the day before most tradesman had logos on their vans. Back in the 90's almost every tradesman I knew drove a plain white Ford Transit van.
Source: Grew up in Essex and most of my neighbors were white van men.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Townsend