28 carriers have signed the agreement so far and committed to principles aimed at establishing best practices and guidelines for carriers and businesses to identify, mitigate, and prevent fraudulent activities.
These include establishing targets for the prevention of fraudulent traffic which should be included within management reporting and adhering to i3Forum recommended processes to detect and avoid fraud.
Participating businesses will also implement measures to block identified fraudulent numbers and ranges, take all reasonable actions to avoid payment flows to the instigators of fraudulent traffic and commit to sharing information regarding suspicious traffic flows with upstream and downstream parties.
The GLF Annual Report 2023 found the share of operators who have seen an increase in messaging fraud has almost doubled since 2022 from 35% to 62%.
Meanwhile, the number of operators reporting fraud is decreasing on their network dropped from 33% in 2022 to just 3% in 2023.
The GLF say this surge in fraud poses significant financial and reputational risks to businesses, consumers, and end-users in the telecoms industry and the emergence of Artificial Intelligence Traffic has further exacerbated the urgency for a unified response.
Recognising this, the framework aims to restore trust and integrity in the SMS channel.
This Commitment outlines best practices and guidelines for carriers and businesses to identify, mitigate, and prevent fraudulent activities.
Eloy Rodriguez, Chair of the GLF's Anti-Fraud Working Group and Chief Wholesale Officer at Telefónica Global Solutions welcomed the “strong industry statement and commitment to expand [a] collective fight against fraud in SMS.”
“The work we have done collaboratively across the GLF and with the i3Forum to combat voice fraud has had a significant impact on the market. Our aim is to deliver the same for SMS by removing financial incentives and processes that have led to the loss of trust in SMS,” Roriguez said.
This is important, as SMS is the “only globally pervasive channel that supports consumers and businesses”.
Rodriguez encouraged all international service providers active in the space to come forward, sign the commitment and adhere to its principles.
Those that have signed so far include Airtel Business, Angola Cables, Apelby, Axiata, Bayobab, bics, BT Group, BTS, CMC Networks, Deutsche Telekom, du, e&, GMS, HGC, iBasis, Identidad, Legos, Orange Wholesale, Reliance Jio, Retelit, stc, Sunrise, Telarix, Telefonica Global Solutions, Telin Telstra, TIM and UGI.
Christian Michaud, vice chair of the i3Forum said the framework is a testament to the industry's dedication to safeguarding the integrity of SMS communications.
“By uniting our efforts and sharing critical information, we can effectively combat fraudulent activities and protect both businesses and consumers from the growing threat of SMS fraud. Our collective action is crucial to maintaining the trust and reliability of SMS as a vital communication channel,” he said.
For more information on the iniative and to find out how to sign up, contact Cristina Sanchez, Senior Programme Manager, GLF at Cristina.sanchez@itwglf.com.
