The new regulation of the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom will enter into force on Thursday.
It is estimated that the proceeds of crime obtained through text message scams are up to 10 million euros. Colourbox
The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom has prepared together with telecom operators ways to protect against text message scams. In the future, organizations can protect their sender ID.
In the past month alone, Iltalehti has reported on several ways in which ordinary people are tried to be cheated. Most of the time, the goal is to fish people’s bank or credit card information, get people to pay unsecured bills or transfer money to a specified account. According to estimates, the criminal benefit has been a total of 10 million euros.
According to Traficom, attempts to scam people have already become a significant problem over the years.
– Deceiving mobile phone users by pretending to be someone else and falsifying the sender information of text messages (SMS messages) have been a significant problem in recent years, Traficom tells in its announcement.
According to Traficom, one of the most famous scams of 2022 targeted S-bank’s customers, who lost a total of around 2.4 million euros.
– Falsifying text message sender information is an international phenomenon, which also plays a significant role in cyber fraud in Finland,” says the development manager of Traficom’s Cyber Security Center Lauri Isotalo in the bulletin.
New regulation in force
The regulation, which will enter into force on Thursday, November 9, limits the possibility of criminals to falsify the sender information visible to the recipient of a text message.
In the future, different organizations can protect the sender IDs they use (SMS Sender ID) and ensure that no other entity can use the same ID in Finland.
Applications for protection of sender IDs are made using the form on Traficom’s website.
– The order offers organizations that send text messages tools to protect IDs, but it does not provide protection until the IDs are registered, Traficom expert Klaus Nieminen says.