Commsrisk published a report on 10 July 2024. UK carrier BT revealed that A2P smishing volumes on its network have fallen by 83% since March 2023, achieved through multi-stakeholder anti-fraud initiatives.
UK operator BT disclosed an 83% reduction in A2P smishing messages on its network since March 2023. The result stems from law-enforcement collaboration, in-house firewalls and adherence to a voluntary code of practice by partners. BT also rolled out stricter SMS blocking policies on 10 July 2024 to strengthen risk controls for banking and logistics A2P messages.
BT issued its anti-fraud Code of Practice in September 2023, introducing controls over sender IDs and message content: block sender IDs containing high-risk keywords such as bank and package; restrict impersonation of brands including Mastercard; control special characters in sender IDs to prevent visual spoofing; block numeric IDs with non-UK area codes and malformed short codes; and filter suspicious malicious links within message bodies. Aggregators and CPaaS partners are required to comply with this code.
Effective 10 July 2024, BT enforced new controls: all banking and logistics A2P SMS must be submitted via dedicated “trusted A2P binding” channels; all other sources are blocked. This design reduces false positives while enabling aggressive risk mitigation. The framework serves as a practical reference for other telecom operators. The report also notes anti-fraud work is continuous; carriers must keep investing in criminal investigations and firewall upgrades.
