After 15 December this year, scammers who use fake SMS IDs will find it harder to use company names to trick their victims.

Until now the rules about registering a company name with your SMS number have not been tight enough in Australia, so scammers could easily link the name of a bank or the taxation office to an anonymous phone number and use it to trick customers to make money transfers or intimidate them to pay ‘fines’ and ‘penalties.’ The ACMA is moving to change that.

Organised crime syndicates are now impersonating respected brands to scam Australians. ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin says the regulator’s aim in making changes to the SMS regulations “is to help to restore consumer confidence that the brand identified in an SMS sent using text-based sender IDs is legitimate and can be trusted.”

The communications regulator is introducing a new standard, called the Telecommunications (SMS Sender ID Register) Industry Standard, which will require anyone wanting to link a company name to a phone number to prove they are a bona fide Australian company with the rights to use that name and number. It will work in a similar way to the business names register and can be cross referenced to Australian company information to verify the registration request.

Unregistered Sender IDs will be stamped ‘Unverified’ helping recipients of scam texts to identify that the number may not be genuine. The regulator may also expand the rules beyond telcos to capture electronic messaging providers that send SMS or MMS on behalf of businesses and other organisations.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) is seeking comments on amended rules that will govern Australia’s SMS ID Register when it commences from 15 December 2025.

The consultation responds to specific matters raised in an initial consultation earlier this year. The ACMA is also seeking feedback on expanding these rules beyond telcos to capture electronic messaging providers and is accepting feedback on that issue as well.

Once introduced, the changes will mean that:

• unregistered sender IDs will be over-stamped with the word ‘Unverified’ from 15 December 2025. This means that all unregistered messages will appear in a single ‘Unverified’ message thread on mobile phones
• international entities and Australian entities without an ABN will be able to register sender IDs directly with telcos certified by the ACMA, and
• telcos not approved to participate in the scheme will not be allowed to carry SMS or MMS using sender IDs.

If your company is using a station name on messages that it sends from its text line, make sure that it is properly registered under the new rules by December, so that callers can determine if messages you send are legitimate communications from you.

A copy of the draft standard can be found here  

Reporting: Steve Ahern