'OFCA's SMS sender registration scheme hard to tackle individual senders,' say IT experts

Hong Kong IT experts are worried that the upcoming SMS sender registration scheme established by the Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) may not be able to target individual message senders.

The SMS sender registration scheme, which will be launched by end of this year, aims to assist the public in ascertaining the authenticity of SMS sender addresses. Under the scheme, all messages from unregistered senders will be blocked.

The OFCA, joined by mobile service providers, the police, the banking industry and its regulatory authority, have established a dedicated working group to formulate technical proposals and details in relation to the implementation of the scheme. A pilot run of the scheme for the banking industry will be run by end of this year. 

In a conversation with MARKETING-INTERACTIVE, Francis Fong Po Kiu, president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Federation, believed that the scheme only regulates the business units. "The scheme may not target individual message senders. Suspects may send messages individually using the company’s name. On the other hand, messages from overseas companies may be blocked innocently as they did not register with OFCA."

Agreeing with Fong was Wong Ho Wa, conveyor of Open Data Working Group, Internet Society Hong Kong, “Overall, it may prevent some phishing via SMS/MMS message. However, it may be hard to crack down on phishing messages sent through WhatsApp, Instagram and SMS registered with phone numbers.”

Wong added that the government should educate citizens to be cautious when receiving suspicious phone messages and help them distinguish the difference between real and scam MMS such as misspelled names, suspicious URLs. He also said users should try not to give passwords easily before ensuring the message is sent from a known person or entity.

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