Having Anti-SMS Spoofing Registry May Not Increase Banks' Liability

Customers’ actions still play big part in equation, say lawyers

- Kenny Chee

A new registry that organisations, including banks, can sign up for could help reduce the spoofing of names used for sending SMSes, which happened in recent SMS phishing scams that caused many OCBC Bank customers to lose funds.

Some banks are already on the registry, with OCBC understood to have joined it recently.

But lawyers told The Straits Times that having the registry, which was launched in August last year as a pilot scheme, might not increase banks’ liability for the money customers lose.

Customers’ actions still play a big part in the equation, they said.

If customers give their banking details to scammers, even if they were tricked into doing so, and the banks’ systems are not compromised and their practices meet industry standards, the customers are often responsible for the lost funds in the scams, not the banks, the lawyers said.