Dotdigital’s strategy towards protecting its clients from falling victim to the rising SMS scams in Singapore

Recently, many of you would have noticed the Singapore media outlets flooding with news on businesses/organizations, especially banks getting duped by SMS. The phishing scam has been tricking customers through an SMS that appears to be sent by a legitimate business claiming issues with their credit/debit cards. It prompts the customer to call a number for assistance resulting in scammers getting hold of personal details and gaining access to bank accounts to carry out fraudulent transactions.

In light of this, the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) has urged more businesses to sign up with a government pilot program launched in August 2021 to allow organizations to register SMS sender IDs they wish to protect.

OCBC Bank has become the latest organization to sign up for the pilot program, joining other companies such as Singapore Post and the ecommerce platform Lazada.

Dotdigital’s umbrella approach

At Dotdigital, client safety is of utmost importance and priority with a zero-tolerance policy for phishing/scams. With the help of our committed and proactive tech team that acts quickly to improvise with changing dynamics, Dotdigital has introduced an array of stringent steps to combat the developing situation.

• Dotdigital now require its customers sending on behalf of Singapore banks to register any sender ID names they use
• Messages sent from bank names that are not registered will not be delivered.
• We have barred sender IDs from the following banks: DBS, UOB, OCBC, Maybank, CIMB, Citi, Standard chartered, and POSB on our platform. Unless any clients speak to the Dotdigital team about sending banking messages from the above sender IDs, these will automatically fail.
• If a customer on board wants to send on behalf of these banks, they need to register the sender ID and present a Letter of Authorisation from the bank (either directly to our partners or us) copy of the SMS. We will then enable this sender ID for that particular client only).

Leverage the power of SMS while protecting your customers

There’s no denying the dominance of mobile in the marketplace. The device now makes up 60% of global ecommerce spending– representing 6% of total global retail sales and $1.357 trillion in revenue. Those figures are hard to pass over. And it’s not just consumers who favor the phone. 76% of B2B buyers aged 36-51 believe their mobile device is essential to their work, and for millennials, it’s 84%.

Therefore, bringing SMS into your marketing strategy is an essential step in the direction of cross-channel customer experience. SMS is an effective marketing tool that lets you cut through the noise when other channels can’t. But how do you make the most of SMS marketing and keep your customers protected simultaneously? Here are some best practices that will not only protect your customers but also your business:

• Evaluate the SMS program from a thorough risk and vulnerability perspective – this is imperative
• Implement a robust two-factor authentication – deploying a layered security framework to mobile messaging applications will ensure security at each stage of development.
• As more and more customers fall victim to SMS spoofing/ SMiShing, focus on educating your customers on security dos and don’ts.
• Ensure third-party security – many businesses rely on third parties to operate SMS services. Make sure the third-party vendor has the essential security measures in place to identify / fraudulent use of the SMS services.

The best way to guarantee ROI, mitigate the risks and meet customer expectations is with a best-of-breed marketing provider that offers SMS as part of its core functionality. Check out all you can do with Dotdigital’s decades of experience sending SMS globally here.