Over 225 million scam text messages have been blocked by Telstra’s SMS fraud filters since April 2022, and 775 malicious texts are stopped per minute on average.
The results of Telstra’s new SMS scam prevention function, which had prevented more than 185 million fraudulent text messages in the three months since its launch, were discussed in July.
According to Telstra Asia Pacific CISO Narelle Devine, since April, banned scam messages have included offers to hand over personal information to criminals and impersonation scams asking financial information.
Every one of these 225 million frauds that is stopped lowers the likelihood that an Australian may fall for one of them.
Other frauds that Telsta has stopped include impersonation schemes that try to mislead you into giving a bogus website your personal information or even your financial information (such your credit card details).
Similar to this, the telecom has noticed an increase in the amount of bank frauds, fake toll notice scams, and false job offer scams that are transmitted across its network.
According to Telstra, one of the ways it tries to shield its consumers from scammers is through its SMS blocking system. It stated that “our systems would reject hundreds of millions of fraudulent calls and emails from Bigpond email accounts throughout 2022.”
The good news, according to Devine, is that none of the protections offered by its Cleaner Pipes programme require end users or customers to take any action in order to be activated. The Telstra network has them turned on automatically.
“We’ve also worked with McAfee on our new Device Security offering if you want a little additional help keeping yourself and your family safe online.”
She stated, “For a little monthly cost, you will get additional protection across 10 devices from known viruses, malware, phishing schemes, and identity theft.”
