Improvements to configuring international SMS

For customers who send messages outside the UK, we’ve made an enhancement to the way in which you can control the countries your account can send messages to.

Previously there were only 2 options, international SMS enabled or UK only.

This is fine but it means that if a mobile number is wrongly formatted, the incorrect number   could match a format for a country which has a much higher tariff. In this case, you would have been charged for attempting to send a text to that country.

Now you can choose to switch individual countries off or on, so you have full control over which countries your account can send messages to.

For example if you know that you’re never going to send messages to France and Germany you can switch those countries off.

To access international control, login to your account and go to SMS Credits – International SMS.

Please note that some countries are highly regulated and require registering before you can send texts there. (E.g USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and much of the middle east.)

Enabling SMS sending to restricted countries in your account, does not mean that you can send messages there without registration.

If you need to send to a restricted country, drop us a line at [email protected] and we’ll talk you through the process.

Helping combat SMS pump fraud

SMS pumping is a type of SMS fraud where web forms that generate SMS one time passwords are hijacked by fraudsters.

They generate vast numbers of fraudulent SMS OTPs from which they generate a revenue share. If web forms are not adequately protected, then all SMS credits can be rapidly depleted.

With the new international controls, customers will be able ensure that SMS OTPs are only generated for authorised countries.