The Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) today (February 21) announced that the SMS Sender Registration Scheme is now open for application by all sectors to further help members of the public verify the identities of SMS senders, with a view to combating SMS fraud.
 
     OFCA has been maintaining close liaison with Police and telecommunications operators to assist in combating telephone and SMS fraud from the perspective of telecommunications services. Since the implementation of the Scheme on December 28 last year, major telecommunications operators, the banking industry and individual government departments have joined the Scheme successively. OFCA is now further opening up the Scheme and welcomes the participation of public and private organisations from various industries with a practical need to communicate with customers/clients via SMS.
 
     "Under the Scheme, only those companies or organisations being 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. With such an arrangement, members of the public can easily identify whether an SMS message is received from a Registered Sender by the prefix '#' in the SMS Sender ID," a spokesman for OFCA said.
 
     "Companies or organisations interested in joining the Scheme may visit OFCA's website for details and submit their completed application forms together with the required information to OFCA. OFCA will review the application and the SMS Sender ID(s) that can be used for registration if the application is approved," the spokesman added.
 
     OFCA reminds that under all circumstances, members of the public should stay highly vigilant when receiving SMS messages from unknown senders, and 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, to avoid suffering any loss. Should there be any doubt, they should report it to Police immediately.
 
     OFCA will continue to collaborate with all stakeholders and enhance publicity to raise public awareness of phone and SMS scams.

Ends/Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Issued at HKT 16:52

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