New ‘likely scam’ tag for texts comes into effect
A new ‘likely scam’ label will from today be added to text messages that users receive from companies or organisations that have not yet registered with the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg), in a bid to protect mobile users from falling victim to scams.
Any organisations that fail to register with ComReg will have any text messages they send labelled ‘likely scam’ to alert the recipient that it may not be legitimate.
“You may see ‘likely scam’ and that means we’re not sure they are really the sender of that message,” Commissioner Robert Mourik said.
“However, at this moment that can also mean your doctor or dentist hasn’t yet registered with us. We’re asking everyone whose message comes up as ‘likely scam’ but is genuine, to come to us and register their number.”
Consumers receiving text messages from the SMS Sender ID ‘Likely Scam’ are advised to be cautious of the content of those messages and to avoid clicking on links or calling any numbers within those texts.
ComReg recommends that they contact the organisation the message claims to be from to see if it is genuine.
From 3 October, text messages from unregistered SMS Sender IDs will be blocked altogether and consumers will not receive them at all.
ComReg says that over 11,000 SMS Sender IDs have been registered to date.
Mr Mourik described this three-month period as a time to allow the system to “settle” as he anticipates more organisations will register.
“We know that these scam messages we are going to block are causing about €115-120million of damage every year so we really think and hope that by introducing this measure, we can seriously prevent a lot of harm to the Irish consumer,” he said.
“People can still receive text messages from normal phone numbers or foreign phone numbers which could also still be fraud. We are talking to Government to see what we can do to tackle those messages as well in the future.”
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