Singapore blocks fake government messages

In an effort to protect the public from official impersonation scams, from 1 July, most SMS messages sent by government agencies in Singapore will have a unique sender ID to make it easier for the public to authenticate government text messages.

All text messages from the government will have a line indicating which agency is sending the message. Photo: Govinsider

According to Govinsider, the government sends more than 100 million text messages to citizens every year, such as notices to fill out tax forms, updates on public housing applications or reminders to attend medical appointments.

However, from 1 July, such SMS messages will display “gov.sg” as the sender ID instead of individual government agencies, such as “MOH” for the Ministry of Health or “Iras” for the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore. In addition to the “gov.sg” ID, all text messages will begin with the full name of the sending agency and end with a note stating that it is an automated message from the Singapore Government, so that the recipient does not need to respond to the message.

However, there are exceptions, whereby text messages from the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Home Affairs on national service and emergency services issues will have different sender IDs. The “gov.sg” sender ID currently applies to messages sent via SMS, but not to other messaging platforms such as WhatsApp or Telegram.

According to the Singapore Police Force (SPF), nearly 900 government impersonation scams were reported in 2023, with at least SGD13 million ($9.5 million) in losses in December alone.

In recent years, several initiatives have been introduced to prevent SMS scams. In 2022, all banks in Singapore removed clickable links in emails and SMS sent to retail customers. In 2023, the Infocomm Media Development Authority required all organisations sending SMS with alphanumeric IDs to register for SMS Sender IDs. As of April 2024, more than 4,000 businesses – including financial institutions and e-commerce companies – had registered.

CHI HANH

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/singapore-chan-gia-mao-tin-nhan-cua-chinh-phu-post744872.html