Messaging fraud exists because there are those who want to take advantage of people, gain a commercial advantage over their rivals, or exploit vulnerable systems for personal gain.

Fraud persists because of a lack of awareness, a lack of inclination or a lack of ability to make any meaningful change to the status quo. But left unchecked, the whole messaging industry is put at risk, whether you find yourself directly affected by fraud or not.

So, what exactly are we dealing with? MEF’s messaging working group behind the recently launched Future of Messaging Programme has identified 11 different types of fraud.

1 ) Spam: this can be the result of overzealous marketers knowingly sending promotional messages to bought or farmed lists of telephone numbers in an attempt to increase sales, or the failure by a brand or enterprise to properly manage consumer data correctly, either in terms of how they verify that a number supplied to them by a customer is correct or by not obtaining explicit consent from their customer about how a number may be used for marketing purposes in future.

Fraud within the messaging ecosystem affects everyone, be it directly or indirectly, no matter where you sit within the value chain. If consumers lose faith in SMS, or consumer complaints drive the imposition of overbearing regulations, then this quick, nimble, immediate and effective means of communication may be lost.

2 ) SMS Originator Spoofing: the sending party’s true identity is deliberately hidden in order to trick a consumer into thinking that a message is from someone familiar to them, for example, by using the originator ‘Apple’ to pretend to be “Apple”, or “HMRC” (UK Tax Office).

3 ) SMiShing (SMS Phishing): by combining SPAM, SMS Originator Spoofing and social engineering techniques, the sending party attempts to gain access to online systems, accounts or data such as credit card information by masquerading as a trustworthy entity, for example, a mobile subscriber’s bank.

The impact of some types of fraud are plain for all to see, such as those that target consumers directly. The ‘how’ and ‘why’ are reasonably easy to understand: overzealous marketers, a sender pretending to be someone they are not to try and solicit private and confidential information or to deliver malicious software into a mobile subscriber’s handset for personal gain.

But others are less obvious to the wider mobile environment, namely, those which occur in the relationships between mobile operators, signalling companies and the aggregators which sit between them. An additional consequence of the efforts by some to gain commercial advantage through the exploitation of network vulnerabilities or manipulation within the routing process is poor quality service delivery to enterprise which can, in turn, damage their relationships with their customers or even their brand.

Miranda Smith

Policy & Initiatives Projects Manager

MEF

 

Fraud within the messaging ecosystem affects everyone, be it directly or indirectly, no matter where you sit within the value chain. If consumers lose faith in SMS, or consumer complaints drive the imposition of overbearing regulations, then this quick, nimble, immediate and effective means of communication may be lost.

Through its collaborative and cross-ecosystem approach, MEF is taking a stand and by clearly identifying the problem we all need to face up to, has taken its first step towards making positive changes and creating a market which is free of fraud.