What is a Sender ID and why do we now have Unverified SMS messages?

July 1, a new financial year and a new era for SMS recipients across Australia – scammers will have a tougher time, but not a block completely. The ACMA has introduced mandatory Sender IDs and it means you’ll know who a message is from if it comes from a business name.

To understand the “why” of the new Sender ID rules, up until now, anyone using enterprise SMS systems can send tens, hundreds even thousands of SMS messages at a time and put any word or name down as the “sender”.

This is why some people might have gotten messages from “AusPost” or “Qantas” that were in fact scams.

In simple terms, if you get an SMS from July 1 that is from a “name” not a “number” then that Name must be registered with the ACMA and the Telcos and verified as owned by the sender.

For EFTM, we send in-app verification codes from “EFTM”, and we can continue to do that because we registered our business to “own” that name, and so business as usual for us.

But for scammers, they will need to be a bit more cunning – something they are good at doing, so this won’t mean an end to scams, but it will mean an end to the confusion about “spoofing” another business name.

Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) Chair Nerida O’Loughlin says it’s all about legitimacy “From today, Australians will start seeing a clear difference between SMS messages sent from registered sender IDs and those that have not been registered,”

“If a message is marked as ‘Unverified’ it should be treated with extra caution. It may be from a legitimate business or organisation that has not yet registered its sender ID, or it may be a scam message impersonating a trusted brand.

What will happen to scammer messages from now on? Well if they try to spoof a real name and are not registered, they will go into a new message name called “Unverified”.

Critically, if you’re a business who has previously sent messages from a “name” then you MUST be register your business name – or risk your messages being lumped into that “unverified” thread.

From the ACMA perspective, Ms O’Loughlin says “Either way, the message is simple – stop and think before you click a link or provide information to the sender.

“We know that SMS messages are used for many important services, including medical appointment reminders, parcel delivery updates, banking alerts and other essential communications,” Ms O’Loughlin said.

“While the register grows, messages from unregistered sender IDs are being labelled rather than blocked. This gives businesses and organisations time to register their legitimate sender IDs, while giving consumers a clear signal to pause and verify messages marked ‘Unverified’.

“There is no cut-off date for registration and businesses and organisations that rely on branded SMS and have not registered their sender IDs should contact their messaging provider as soon as possible.

So – fear not, nothing you need to do – unless you are a business sending messages from a “Name” not a number.

For those businesses communicating from a mobile number, either physically on a phone or using a computer system – nothing changes. For example our text line for podcast listeners is 0477 657 657 and we can still send replies and other messages from that number, because, it’s our number!

These changes only apply to businesses sending SMS messages from “Names” not numbers:)