New weapon for anti-spam investigators
New weapon for anti-spam investigators
Internal
Affairs has stepped up its fight against mobile phone text
spam by entering into a public private partnership and
signing up to an international reporting service which will
make it easier to track spammers and fraudsters breaching
New Zealand’s anti-spam law.
The GSMA Spam Reporting Service (SRS), from messaging security software provider Cloudmark, means the Department can work more closely with New Zealand mobile operators analysing SMS text spam. The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide. The Department elected to use the global service as a tool to combat SMS text spam while maintaining the free 7726 short code reporting service already in existence.
Regulatory Services General Manager, Maarten Quivooy, says the SRS will enable the Department, through its Electronic Messaging Compliance Unit, to share intelligence about spam texts.
“Mobile devices are increasingly the target for unsolicited commercial electronic messages, commonly referred to as spam and also malicious attacks, attempting to con money or obtain personal information from their owners through scams or phishing attacks,” Mr Quivooy said.
“We have been operating the 7726 short code for reporting SMS text spam for almost two years but analysing the complaints to track the origins of the spam has been limited without the advantages offered by the Cloudmark system.
“By combining the reporting we
already receive, with Cloudmark’s analytics, the
Department will be able to work with New Zealand
telecommunications service providers as well as with other
regulatory agencies and private authorities around the world
so that action can be taken against spam attacks affecting
New Zealand consumers. By reporting problems back to a
global collection, aggregation and reporting service the
Electronic Messaging Compliance Unit at Internal Affairs
will be in a better position to defend consumers against
falling victim to spam.”
Ends