SMS Spoofing: Prevent Revenue Loss by Securing the Network Against Fraudulent Attack

The GSM Association has identified a number of potential fraud attacks on mobile operators that are caused by abuse of SMS messaging services. The most serious of these threats is SMS Spoofing. SMS Spoofing occurs when a fraudster manipulates address information in order to impersonate a user that has roamed onto a foreign network and is submitting messages to the home network. Frequently, these messages are addressed to destinations outside the home network - with the home SMSC essentially being "Hijacked" to send messages into other networks. An SMS Spoofing attack is often first detected by an increase in the number of SMS errors encountered during a bill-run.