Australians will notice that some text messages they receive will look different from 1 July as new rules come in to help stop scam texts.
Under the SMS Sender ID Register rules, messages sent using unregistered branded sender IDs, such as business or organisation names, will appear on mobile phones labelled as ‘Unverified’.
These messages will be grouped in a single thread with other unverified messages, including possible scams.
Messages sent using registered sender IDs such as ‘AusPost’, ‘Linkt’ or ‘myGov’ will continue to appear individually with their registered name.
ACMA member Samantha Yorke said the new initiative will give people more confidence that SMS messages sent with a branded sender ID are legitimate.
“These changes will give Australians an extra layer of protection to help prevent impersonation scams,” Ms Yorke said.
“From 1 July people will start seeing a clear difference between text messages sent from registered sender IDs and those that have not been registered.
“If a message is marked as ‘Unverified’, people should treat it with extra caution and not click on any links or provide personal information,” Ms Yorke said.
