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Last year alone, almost half of all Australians have been scammed or exposed to text scams, with those who fell for it losing a total of $3.1 billion.
To help combat this problem, the Albanese government is awarding $10 million over four years to the Australian Communications and Media Authority to launch and maintain an Australian SMS sender ID Registry.
The Registry will help prevent scammers from imitating key industry or government brand names – such as Linkt or myGov – in text message headers. When implemented, the registry is expected to serve as an additional layer of protection for Australians against scammers imitating government organisations for their schemes.
“With more and more Australians reporting scam text messages, the Albanese Government is taking strong action by funding the regulator to establish a new SMS sender ID Registry to support telcos in stopping scammers from imitating trusted brands,” said Communications Minister Michelle Rowland.
This measure will complement rules registered by the ACMA in July 2022 for telecommunications companies that blocked more than 90 million scam texts between July and December 2022.
Whilst the measure is not expected to singlehandedly stop all scamming activities done through text, the Australian Government is committed to improving protections and stepping up the fight against illegal scams.
The registry will also complement the Albanese Government’s investment to establish a National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC) within the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) as an innovative, world-leading public-private sector partnership to disrupt and stop scammers in Australia.
“We know text messages have topped phones calls as a scammers tool of choice. The registry will not only make it tougher for scammers to imitate trusted brands through SMS; it will be crucial in disrupting a key channel scammers use to target victims”, said Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones.
The SMS Sender ID Registry will have a phased introduction before an industry-wide model is in place – subject to rule making, industry readiness and security arrangements.
Meanwhile, the government is advising Australians to watch our signs of text scams and be extra careful when interacting with senders purporting to be government organisations.
For example, you may receive a legitimate text message from Australia Post with ‘AusPost’ in the message header. This might be a notification to pick up a parcel.
Scammers are currently able to copy or ‘spoof’ that AusPost message header and send you a message in that AusPost message thread.
This means that in your regular messages from AusPost, a scammer can insert a malicious text message with a scam link that looks otherwise perfectly legitimate inside a trusted brand message thread.
When the registry comes into effect, AusPost will be able to register their Sender ID and telcos will then be able to block incoming messages that are not legitimate trying to use that Sender ID.
