8th May 2024
This article details changes occurring in the area of SMS messaging, particularly around the use of named Sender IDs.
A named Sender ID is an alphanumeric contact that identifies who has sent an SMS message.
Scammers have been able to manipulate SMS providers to “spoof” or impersonate legitimate businesses, financial institutions and government departments through the use of Sender ID's. These messages would then sit in the same phone message thread of unsuspecting recipients making it very difficult to distinguish genuine from illicit messages.
VETtrak has long supported the ability to use a Sender ID within its interface, and many of our clients will have already used Sender IDs in their messages.
Registering Sender IDs with ACMA (Australian Communication and Media Authority) will soon become a legal requirement before they can be used to send message. Soon, messages sent without an approved Sender ID, will be blocked by the sending gateway.
ACMA is working with SMS providers towards setting up a Sender ID registry.
This will ensure that your business Sender ID will be registered and unique to you (the registrant) only. This will eliminate spoofing and trust in your brand will be enhanced. For more information see https://www.acma.gov.au/sms-sender-id-registry
These changes will have ramifications for both the short and medium term for the delivery of messages for VETtrak users.
Immediate impact
For users who have sent an SMS message from VETtrak with a Sender ID prior to April 2024, we have received approval for those Sender IDs to be used until the full requirements take effect, likely in September 2024.
Moving forward, any message sent from a Sender ID that has not been registered will be blocked, and there will be no ability to receive credit for the undelivered messages or possibly even be able to tell if that message has been delivered successfully.
Now its important to understand that any new names moving forward will need to be approved by ACMA prior to being used to deliver messages. Approval will take 2-3 weeks and you will need to factor that into any plans to use a Sender ID.
To ensure business continuity, no new Sender IDs should be used for now. Sender IDs that have been used in the past can continue to be used until advised.
Medium-term impact
To help manage these SMS changes, we will update the functionality within VETtrak to allow users to apply for ACMA approval of Sender IDs.
Once approved, these approvals can be recorded in VETtrak and then that Sender ID will become available to users sending SMS messages within VETtrak and the Trainer Portal.
These changes are planned for our VETtrak 24.3 release due for delivery in early July.
Other changes
In addition to the requirement to have a Sender ID approved, changes are also coming into effect regarding what names can be used.
A Sender ID should closely align or resemble the name of your organisations name or acronym, initialism, or contraction of the name (e.g. Acme Corporation, ACME, Acme Corp or ACME). No generic or personal names, possible conflicts with an existing entity, verbs etc are allowed (e.g. Reception, John Smith, CommBank etc.).
If you have any questions or concerns please let us know through our support line, support@vettrak.io We will post any important updates on this page.