Telstra ramps up the fight against scammers and spammers

Cyber security is at the forefront of all of our minds these days in our connected lifestyle. Everything from good passwords to network security, but what about when you become the security risk?Scam calls, emails and SMS his Aussie phones at an alarming rate, putting us at risk of clicking a dodgy link.

Telstra has taken action to work towards eliminating that threat. It only takes a moment of inattention, or lack of awareness of the threat to become a victim and lose a lot of money. The new 7226 number opens up a new pathway for Telstra users (including MNVO customers) to combat scam messages.

How it works

Forwarding an SMS to 7226 (SCAM – if you look at the number) puts it in the queue to be analyzed for criteria that may identify further scam attempts. Once confirmed, the criteria are loaded into the database for further messages to be scanned against and hopefully eliminate further like messages.

The system is available to all Telstra, Telstra Wholesale and MNVO clients, with only simple data stored to assist with the telco doing its best to ensure customer privacy, even after making reports:

Telstra will not share personal information relating to the customer forwarding on the scam message to 7226. If the need arises, where we are seeing large numbers of legitimate SMS being reported for example, then only the generic de identified information, not the sender’s details, would be shared with the company purported to have sent the scam message.

I know I get a reasonably high number of attempted scam SMS, luckily, Google Messages does a good job at blocking the majority of these messages from ever hitting my inbox. A bit more protection as a Boost user, gives me peace of mind that the core network are also working to protect me.