The Australian telecommunications network Telstra has created a new method to stop weird-looking text messages from reaching their customer’s phones after a report has shown a sharp increase in phishing incidents.
Based on a statement released on the company’s official website, a filter will scan through any new text message the user receives to see if it contains any suspicious-looking content before allowing it to reach their screens. What isn’t stated however is what this filter is, how it works or even its level of success, leaving much to the imagination.
“We’re applying knowledge of what scam text messages look like to block them at the network level. Automatic machine scanning picks suspicious content such as malicious links and combines this with other patterns and characteristics such as the time, sender, the number of messages sent and the recipient.”
The Aussie network provider isn’t the first of its kind to introduce such technologies, as many others across the world have made use of a similar filter in order to fight back against scams. EE, a UK-based network, applied this almost a year ago with no negative effects towards its clients.
Based on data from the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC), network users have been scammed out of $100 million last year alone by phishing texts and calls. An increase of over 50 percent compared to the previous year.
From text messages (SMS) alone, there was a 124 percent increase in scams in the twelve months leading to February 2022, while financial losses were five times worse when compared to the previous year.
Scammers are highly inventive and constantly find new and innovative ways of trying to extort important information out of people (like their bank account details.) They also target social groups who are more likely to fall victim to their schemes.
