SMS sender ID registration obligatory for organisations; telcos to filter potential rip-off messages: IMDA

SINGAPORE: As a part of efforts to deal with scams, the Infocomm Media Growth Authority (IMDA) introduced on Friday (Oct 14) new measures that will likely be applied for all organisations and telecom operators.

Organisations that use SMS sender IDs will likely be required to register with the Singapore SMS Sender ID Registry (SSIR) by January subsequent 12 months, mentioned the authority. Registration with the SSIR is in order that bona fide organisations can use such sender IDS.

Telecom operators may also implement SMS anti-scam filtering options inside their networks, to mechanically filter potential rip-off messages earlier than they attain shoppers, IMDA mentioned in a information launch.

These two measures come after public session and are a part of the multi-pronged effort by IMDA and different stakeholders to additional safeguard SMS as a communications channel. 

IMDA earlier announced the proposal for organisations to register with the SSIR in August, including that it was engaged on it with the police, Authorities companies and personal sector companions.

IMDA arrange the SSIR in March this 12 months in response to a surge in SMS-related scams. Following its arrange, there was a 64 per cent discount in scams by means of SMS from the fourth quarter of 2021 to the second quarter of 2022. 

Rip-off instances perpetrated through SMSes make up about 8 per cent of rip-off stories within the second quarter of 2022, down from 10 per cent final 12 months.

The present registry is a voluntary regime, mentioned IMDA. Which means that solely organisations that wish to proactively defend their Sender IDs register with the SSIR. 

“Transferring ahead, registration will likely be made obligatory. Which means that solely bona fide Sender IDs belonging to organisations, will likely be allowed,” mentioned IMDA, including that each one different sender IDs will likely be blocked.

The total registration requirement will take impact on Jan 31, 2023. 

Implementation by January 2023 is pushed by the necessity to act proactively to strengthen the SSIR, mentioned IMDA because it famous the assist for the proposal by each the general public and retailers.

“As some organisations may have extra time to organize and register, their SMS can’t be clearly differentiated from different SMS that come from unknown sources and could also be rip-off messages,” it added. 

As a transition measure, all non-registered SMS sender IDs after Jan 31, 2023 will likely be channelled to a sender ID with the header “Possible-SCAM”. That is akin to a spam filter and spam bin and will likely be in place for about six months, mentioned the authority.

Shoppers are suggested to train warning upon receiving such SMS as these are non-registered sender IDs, it mentioned, including that retailers are additionally urged to have their sender IDs registered early as attainable with the registry.

TELCOS TO IMPLEMENT ANTI-SCAM FILTERS BY OCTOBER

Key cell operators – Singtel, Starhub and M1, will implement anti-scam filtering options of their networks by the top of October, mentioned IMDA.

“Machine-reading expertise has made it attainable to determine and filter potential rip-off messages upstream. Particularly, these options can detect malicious hyperlinks inside SMSes despatched through our telecoms community,” it added.