S’pore Anti-SMS Spoofing Registry Has Reportedly Shut Down All of a Sudden

Most of us should be aware of the OCBC SMS phishing scams that caused a big hoo-ha and sent shockwaves through the local financial institutions.

Many measures were adopted to reduce incidences of fraud from happening again, like removing clickable links and phone numbers from text messages and e-mail, and adding anti-SMS spoofing systems.

You can watch this video to know more about the measures:

All major retail banks and government agencies were required to add themselves onto the Singapore SMS SenderID Protection Registry pilot, a system which prevents scammers from impersonating real organisations by blocking them before the messages are even sent.

However, the original Singapore Protection Registry was suddenly shut down today (7 Mar).

The Original Registry by Mobile Ecosystem Forum

For context, the original registry that the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) had the various financial institutions and government agencies join was created by the London-based Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF).

The Mobile Ecosystem Forum is a global trade body which developed its own registry in 2018, and it’s currently being utilised by Britain, Ireland and Spain.

After the OCBC phishing scams that occurred, urgent calls were made to banks and government agencies to tell them to join the initial registry.

The four main telecommunication companies—Singtel, Starhub, and M1 and TPG Telecom—as well as major SMS aggregators that facilitate commercial SMS sending were not spared either, since IMDA also instructed them to get themselves listed.

Before IMDA and MAS made the registration of the anti-SMS spoofing registry mandatory in Aug 2021, joining the system was originally voluntary.

SingPost and e-commerce Lazada had already chosen to join the MEF’s registry early on; the rest of Singapore’s major institutions and organisations merely joined later.

In all its years thus far, MEF’s registry has proven that it does work, but the local authorities don’t think it’s enough.

IMDA and MEF’s Vision Did Not Align

In an e-mail response to The Straits Times’ enquiries, MEF confirmed that the system had been shut down today.

MEF stated, “MEF’s vision for development and growth of the registry didn’t match that of the IMDA. The decision has been taken to close the registry and allow the regulator to develop its own system according to its own specifications.”

Previously, there were rumours floating around the industry that the IMDA and MEF couldn’t reach a consensus on how they wanted the registry to work.

The registry’s main function is to block spoofed registered names on mobile operator’s networks.

Inside sources have said that IMDA wanted more “proactive blocking”, which MEF refused to provide.

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IMDA Confirms a New Protection Registry is Being Created

According to an IMDA spokesperson, they confirmed that a new system was being built by its subsidiary, the Singapore Network Information Centre, which is also responsible for running the .sg domain name system.

While the abrupt closure of the registry was surprising to many, IMDA felt that a stronger response was needed in light of the recent SMS phishing scams that have been popping up one after another.

And since MEF was unwilling to put in place more proactive preventative measures, IMDA thought that it might as well create its own.

The new system will be called Singapore SMS Sender ID Registry.

It is already in the process of re-registering banks, government agencies, and other organisations on the new system.

Moreover, since it’s being run by a local subsidiary, it means that Singapore possesses greater control and flexibility over the regulatory protocols to better protect the consumers.

For instance, the new system is capable of identifying and blocking spoofed messages upfront, which differs slightly from MEF’s business model.

IMDA stated that the MAS and the Associations of Banks in Singapore approve of this new system, and it is also considering whether it should make it compulsory for all local organisations to be listed.

Look, if it’s going to reduce all the weird messages about loans and betting, and spare us all from the terrible grammar and spelling that the scammers tend to suffer from and inflict on us, I’m all for the new system.

It boils down to having different standards in the end.

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