At Excel Communications, we take telecoms fraud seriously, and we feel it necessary to share with you essential information to help protect your business and your customers from becoming a victim.

This update aims to provide information about spotting potential fraudsters trying to obtain SIM cards/connections to undertake Smishing activity, which is on the rise, we have seen four instances of this kind of activity this week.

Smishing is a form of SMS fraud and enables criminals to steal victims’ money or identity due to responding to a fraudulent and intentionally misleading text message.

To be able to send such messages, the fraudster must obtain services to allow the bulk sending of SMS messages. Due to the sophisticated technology used, the industry has seen cases where large volumes of SIM cards have been obtained, and over a single weekend, over 4 million text messages were able to be sent.

Ensure your teams are aware and extra vigilant to avoid being caught up in mobile fraud.