The Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) announced today that the SMS Sender Registration Scheme is now open for application by all sectors to further help the public verify the identities of SMS senders, with a view to combatting SMS fraud.

Apart from further opening up the scheme, the OFCA said it welcomes public and private organisations from various industries with a practical need to communicate with customers or clients via SMS to join the scheme.

Under the scheme, only registered senders are able to send SMS messages using their registered SMS sender IDs with the prefix “#”. All other SMS messages with sender IDs containing “#” but not sent by registered senders will be blocked by the telecommunications networks.

As such, the public can easily identify whether an SMS message is received from a registered sender by the prefix “#” in the SMS sender ID.

The OFCA reminds citizens to stay highly vigilant when receiving SMS messages from unknown senders and warned that they must not disclose to unidentified senders any personal information, bank account numbers or credit card details, transfer money or access any hyperlink in the SMS messages.

When in doubt, it stressed that people must report such suspicions to Police immediately.

The OFCA emphasised that it will continue to collaborate with all stakeholders and enhance publicity to raise public awareness of phone and SMS scams.