Fraudulent text messages, with which scammers loot millions of euros every year, will be better stopped by telecom operators from mid-October. This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister and Telecom Minister Petra De Sutter today. The Centre for Cybersecurity Belgium (CCB), which has the expertise, managed and implemented the project. It is part of our strategy to fight phishing. Besides the e-mail address suspisious@safeonweb.be and the Belgian Anti-Phishing Shield (BAPS), this is another step in the right direction to stop phishing and smishing.

 

Operators already stop fake text messages for their customers, but sometimes text messages still slip through the net. That net is now being fine-tuned with software that automatically sounds the alarm when a number suspiciously sends text messages. The process allows telecom operators to intervene immediately. The money to develop this software comes from European relaunch funds, Proximus and Telenet signed up to it.

 

The software to stop text messages from scammers is getting even better. Proximus has already tested the new software. In the test phase, it detected up to six times more fake messages than before. From mid-October, people who receive text messages from scammers will actually be stopped.