ACMA takes telcos to task for allowing SMS scams

Three telcos allowed more than 100,000 scam SMS messages to be sent, impersonating Australian road toll companies, Medicare and Australia Post.

Australia’s communications watchdog has taken action after three telcos were found to have breached anti-spam obligations, allowing more than 100,000 scam SMS messages to be sent impersonating road toll companies, Medicare and Australia Post.

An investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found that Sinch, Infobip and Phone Card allowed text messages to be sent without conducting sufficient checks on the IDs of the senders.

In the case of Infobip, it allowed 103,146 non-compliant SMSs to be sent including scams impersonating road toll companies, while Sinch allowed 14,291 messages impersonating Medicare and Australia Post. Phone Card was found to have inadequate systems in place but there was no evidence scammers exploited those opportunities,

ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin said combating SMS and identity theft phone scams is one of the watchdog’s priorities.

“While there is no suggestion the telcos were involved in scam activity themselves, scammers have used their failures to prey on Australians. This wouldn’t have happened if the companies had adequate processes in place and complied with the rules,” she said.

“Scams that impersonate reputable organisations can be particularly hard for consumers to recognise and there’s no telling how much damage could have been done as a result of these scam texts.”

She welcomed the government’s announcement that the agency would develop a new SMS sender ID register to help prevent offshore scammers from impersonating agencies and brands.

“This initiative will help close a key vulnerability used by scammers. The ACMA looks forward to working with industry and trusted brands as we implement this new protection,” Ms O’Loughlin said.

Anyone who thinks they have been scammed is being urged to contact their bank and the ACMA’s Scamwatch service.

The ACMA has given Sinch and Infobip formal directions to comply with obligations, the strongest enforcement action available for code breaches, while Phone Card was given a formal warning.

Australians lost a record $3.1bn to scams last year in 2022, according to the ACCC. That was an increase of increase of 54 per cent compared to 2021.