UK regulators have implemented changes to help reduce smishing and SMS fraud incidents.
As a reminder, effective immediately, application-to-person (A2P) SMS messages sent to the UK from Alphanumeric Sender IDs that contain special characters will be blocked.
The following characters are allowed:
- A to Z (upper and lowercase)
- 0 to 9
- – (dash)
- _ (underscore)
- ‘ ‘ (space)
- & (ampersand)
Any special characters outside of the list above will be blocked (example: “+” or “@”).
Effective October 31, 2023, application-to-person (A2P) SMS messages sent to the UK from the following list of generic Alphanumeric Sender IDs will be blocked.
Note: Combinations of these generic Alphanumeric Sender IDs are allowed (for example, “Smith Bank” or “Border Control” are both allowed.
| 1TimePin | 2FA | Accept | Access | Account | Active | Admin |
| Advise | Alert | Allow | Allowance | App | Appointment | Approve |
| Approved | Auth | AuthMSG | Authorise | AuthSMS | Aware | Bank |
| Banking | Bill | Billing | Call | Card | Caution | Certify |
| Check | CloudOTP | Code | Collect | Collection | Confirm | Contact |
| Control | Courier | Delay | Deliver | Delivery | Discount | Energy |
| Fraud | Help | Info | InfoSMS | ISA | Key | Loan |
| Login | Logistics | LogMeIn | Logon | Malware | Message | Mobile |
| Mortgage | MSG | MsgAuth | Network | NoReply | Notify | OneTimePin |
| Order | OTP | OTPSMS | Package | Parcel | Pay | Payment |
| Pin | PinCode | Post | Protocol | Purchase | Ratify | Rebate |
| Receipt | Refund | Reminder | Repayment | Reply | Respond | Save |
| Saving | Savings | Scam | Schedule | Secure | Security | Service |
| Shipping | Sign | Signin | Signon | SMS | SMSAuth | SMSCode |
| SMSInfo | SMSOTP | SMSVerify | Support | System | Text | Trace |
| Track | Tracking | Trust | TXT | Update | Updates | Validate |
| Verify | VerifySMS | VerifyMe | Virus | Warn | Warning | Winner |
What do you need to do?
Avoid using special characters in your Alphanumeric Sender IDs and use a non-generic Alphanumeric Sender ID to send messages in the UK to avoid message disruption following the steps below:
- If you’re using a Messaging Service, update your generic Alphanumeric Sender ID by reviewing your suppliers guide on Using Alphanumeric Sender ID with Messaging Services.
- If you’re specifying your Alphanumeric Sender ID directly in your API request, update the “From” parameter in your application code with a non-generic Alphanumeric Sender ID.
What if you don’t take action?
There’s no action for you to take. SMS messages sent to the UK from generic Alphanumeric Sender IDs or Sender IDs that contain special characters will be blocked and return an error code.