SINGAPORE — As part of efforts to tackle scams, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) announced on Friday (Oct 14) new measures that will be implemented for all organisations and telecom operators.
Organisations that use SMS sender IDs will be required to register with the Singapore SMS Sender ID Registry (SSIR) by January next year, said the authority. Registration with the SSIR is so that bona fide organisations can use such sender IDS.
Telecom operators will also implement SMS anti-scam filtering solutions within their networks, to automatically filter potential scam messages before they reach consumers, IMDA said in a news release.
These two measures come after public consultation and are part of the multi-pronged effort by IMDA and other stakeholders to further safeguard SMS as a communications channel.
IMDA earlier announced the proposal for organisations to register with the SSIR in August, adding that it was working on it with the police, government agencies and private sector partners.
IMDA set up the SSIR in March this year in response to a surge in SMS-related scams. Following its set up, there was a 64 per cent reduction in scams through SMS from the fourth quarter of 2021 to the second quarter of 2022.
Scam cases perpetrated via SMSes make up about 8 per cent of scam reports in the second quarter of 2022, down from 10 per cent last year.
The current registry is a voluntary regime, said IMDA. This means that only organisations that…
