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	"title": "What Is SMS Pumping Fraud and How to Stop It",
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	"plain_text": "What Is SMS Pumping Fraud and How to Stop It\r\nBy Twilio\r\nPublished: 2024-04-10 · Archived: 2026-04-05 19:17:13 UTC\r\nSMS pumping is becoming an increasingly urgent problem for businesses that use SMS messaging channels to\r\ncommunicate with their customers. SMS pumping fraud artificially increases SMS costs, reducing conversion\r\nrates. This industry-wide problem affects all providers and is a risk to many businesses.\r\nSo what is SMS pumping fraud, and how can your business know if it's been victim to such an attack? \r\nIn this blog, you'll learn what SMS pumping is and how it works, along with the ways it can negatively affect your\r\nbusiness. Then, discover ways to detect and prevent SMS pumping fraud to protect your organization from an\r\nattack.\r\nWhat is SMS pumping?\r\nAlso known as SMS toll fraud, SMS pumping is a type of fraud attack in which bad actors request a high amount\r\nof text message traffic from unprotected SMS endpoints. By targeting your automated SMS messaging channels—\r\nlike one-time passcode (OTP) requests or webform responses—fraudsters can make money from the SMS\r\nmessages you send them.\r\nFraudsters target websites and applications that rely heavily on SMS-based OTPs for identity verification and user\r\nlogin. Businesses that typically use OTPs in their user authentication include:\r\nBanking websites\r\nE-commerce platforms\r\nSocial media sites\r\nRide-sharing or delivery apps\r\nThese are just a few examples of businesses that are vulnerable to SMS pumping attacks. Because SMS remains a\r\npopular authentication method across various industries, it's crucial to understand the risks and implement robust\r\nsecurity measures to protect your organization and customers from this growing threat.\r\nHow does SMS pumping work?\r\nIn an SMS pumping scheme, attackers use bots to create and send fake OTP requests to businesses. The bots input\r\nfake phone numbers into online forms to spoof genuine SMS OTP requests from users. This makes it look like\r\nyour business is generating real online SMS traffic, but you're paying to send SMS messages to fake numbers that\r\nwill never result in a sale or conversion. \r\nhttps://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/sms-pumping-fraud-solutions\r\nPage 1 of 5\n\nSMS pumping can be difficult to detect, meaning businesses may unknowingly spend most of their budget on fake\r\n\"customers.\" \r\nFor example, consider the fictional company PickedClean Organics, a small online business that offers organic\r\nproduct delivery. PickedClean offered promo code for first-time, new customers registering on their website.\r\nWhen customers confirmed their phone number with an SMS OTP, PickedClean was able to verify one promo\r\ncode per one real human.\r\nHowever, a fraudster used automated bots to infiltrate their flow, inserting numerous numbers requesting the SMS\r\nOTP. Fraudsters often use a set of phone numbers with similar prefixes.\r\nPickedClean didn't know that many of the numbers were fake, so this influx in requests to set up new accounts\r\ntriggered many SMS messages, inflating their SMS charges and impacting their overall budget.\r\nSMS pumping fraud had multiple negative effects on PickedClean's business. Below, we'll go over some of the\r\nconsequences SMS fraud can have on victim organizations.\r\nHow does SMS pumping fraud affect businesses?\r\nSMS pumping fraud can negatively affect your business and cause damage, including increasing your SMS costs,\r\nlowering conversion rates, and spamming your SMS channels.\r\nIncreased SMS costs\r\nWhen bad actors pump your website forms with fake numbers, your SMS costs increase significantly. Fraudsters\r\ncan also use fake numbers to trigger a high amount of OTP requests sent to their fake numbers, blasting your\r\nservers with SMS requests.\r\nTo add insult to injury, the money your business spends on these SMS messages will never yield results. The\r\nnumbers are fake, and the customers are, too. \r\nLowered conversion rates\r\nSince you're essentially signing up fake \"customers\" (bots) or sending OTPs into the void, your user base becomes\r\ninflated with \"users\" who will never convert. This not only artificially lowers your conversion rates, increases cost\r\nper conversion, and wastes valuable resources. \r\nAdditionally, fraudulent requests can strain customer service by triggering inquiries, and delays in receiving OTPs\r\ndue to SMS pumping can frustrate genuine users. \r\nIn the worst-case scenario, security concerns around fake OTPs might discourage users from trusting SMS\r\nverification altogether.\r\nOverwhelmed communication channels\r\nhttps://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/sms-pumping-fraud-solutions\r\nPage 2 of 5\n\nBots spamming your SMS channels can have a domino effect on your entire system. More than just a slight delay,\r\na surge of fraudulent traffic can overwhelm your resources and lead to these downstream effects:\r\nIncreased downtime: In severe cases, a large-scale SMS pumping attack can even cause system crashes or\r\ndowntime. This can completely prevent users from receiving any SMS messages, hindering essential\r\nactions like logins or password resets.\r\nLoss of user trust: In an attempt to block fraudsters, businesses may block certain regions or prefixes. This\r\ninadvertently can impact real users, frustrating them and causing them to lose trust. \r\nThese negative effects can wreak havoc on your organization. But how do you know if your system is getting hit\r\nwith an SMS pumping fraud? Below, we'll cover the ways you can begin to detect this type of fraud.\r\nHow to detect SMS pumping fraud\r\nNow that you know what SMS pumping fraud is, how can you tell if it's currently affecting your business?\r\nDetecting SMS fraud can be tricky, but here are four things to look out for:\r\n1. Monitor customer OTP verification\r\nKeep an eye on how many successful OTP attempts come into your system, particularly those sent from countries\r\nin which you don't conduct business. \r\nTypically, successful OTP attempts should originate from locations where you have a legitimate customer base. In\r\ncases of SMS pumping behavior, fraudsters often use a large pool of phone numbers to trigger OTP requests.\r\nThese numbers can include international numbers, resulting in successful OTP attempts from countries where you\r\ndon't have many customers.\r\n2. Track unexpected SMS traffic spikes \r\nAnother metric to track is unexpected SMS traffic spikes. Your business will typically send a steady amount of\r\nSMS messages weekly. Unless you expect a boost in SMS traffic due to a recent campaign or sale, sudden spikes\r\ncan indicate bots are targeting your business in an SMS pumping attack with an increased number of OTP\r\nrequests. SMS fraud bots can use fake phone numbers to request one-time passcodes, triggering a high amount of\r\nSMS spend. Again, unless you're expecting a boost in OTP requests, keep an eye out for OTP request spikes.\r\n3. Investigate rapid OTP requests from adjacent phone numbers\r\nA common indicator of SMS pumping fraud is when you receive OTP requests from phone numbers with similar\r\nnumber patterns. For example, you receive 50 OTP requests in a few minutes. The phone numbers are sequential\r\nand end in 1000, 1001, 1002, 1003, 1004, and so on. \r\nThis is a pretty good sign that a bad actor is trying to get you to send illegitimate messages.\r\n4. Analyze incomplete web forms\r\nhttps://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/sms-pumping-fraud-solutions\r\nPage 3 of 5\n\nAnalyzing form completion patterns can help identify automated bot activity associated with SMS pumping. Bots\r\nmight struggle to fill out forms accurately or consistently, which can be a sign that it is not genuine users\r\nsubmitting your web forms. \r\nHow to prevent SMS pumping\r\nTwilio offers several in-house solutions to help prevent SMS pumping. Let's take a look at some security features\r\nyou might consider to safeguard your business from SMS pumping fraud.\r\nVerify Fraud Guard\r\nVerify Fraud Guard works by analyzing your current and historical SMS traffic for unusual patterns. When Fraud\r\nGuard detects fluctuations in SMS destination traffic, aka SMS pumping fraud, it automatically blocks the prefix\r\nof the destination of the suspected fraud. \r\nAs the first SMS pumping solution to hit the market, Verify Fraud Guard has saved Twilio customers $62.7\r\nmillion in fraudulent costs between June 2022 and October 2024. Verify also provides a global network optimized\r\nfor delivery and conversion, multiple channels including push notifications, WhatsApp, voice, and email, and the\r\nability to abstract away the complexity of omnichannel user verification.\r\nSMS pumping protection for Programmable Messaging \r\nIf you already use our Programmable Messaging API to send notifications, marketing messages, or other\r\nmessages, you'll automatically benefit from SMS pumping protection, which has the following benefits:\r\nIt utilizes automatic fraud detection to identify and block SMS messages flagged as suspicious for SMS\r\npumping attempts.\r\nIt analyzes your current and historical SMS traffic for unusual patterns that deviate from your typical\r\nmessaging activity.\r\nThis convenient, built-in SMS pumping protection provides extra security and peace of mind for your business.\r\nLookup SMS Pumping Risk Score \r\nLookup SMS Pumping Risk Score  employs a unique risk assessment model that considers data from Twilio's\r\nnetwork, incorporating signals from Verify Fraud Guard along with other indicators related to risky carriers,\r\nunusual SMS traffic patterns, and low conversion rates. This comprehensive approach helps determine the\r\nlikelihood of a phone number being associated with fraudulent SMS activities. The Lookup API uses real-time\r\nrisk signals to detect fraud and trigger step-up authentication when needed.\r\nOther solutions\r\nIn addition to these built-in options, you can take additional steps for fraud prevention:\r\nConsider setting limits like disabling geo permissions for countries where you don't conduct business.\r\nhttps://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/sms-pumping-fraud-solutions\r\nPage 4 of 5\n\nSet rate limits on messages sent to the same mobile number range or prefix.\r\nExplore less SMS-reliant options for user verification to reduce your attack surface:\r\nEmail-based OTPs are generally less susceptible to the large-scale network abuse that SMS pumping\r\ninflicts.\r\nSet up an authenticator app that generates time-based one-time passwords. This reduces the need to send\r\nSMS.\r\nUse hardware tokens that plug into your computer and generate unique codes. These are secure from\r\nhacking because they are pieces of hardware that a fraudster would need to physically own to hack into a\r\nsystem.\r\nSecure text verification with Twilio Verify\r\nNo matter how your business uses messaging, Twilio offers a solution to protect your business from experiencing\r\nSMS pumping fraud. Though the amount of fraud each business experiences will fluctuate month to month, Fraud\r\nGuard has already protected customers from over 569 million fraud attempts.\r\nFraud not only affects your company's bottom line, but it can also damage your reputation and customer trust.\r\nLearn more about the rising costs of digital fraud. If you're ready to get started with Twilio Verify or want more\r\ninformation on how Twilio can help you prevent SMS fraud, talk to sales today.\r\nSource: https://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/sms-pumping-fraud-solutions\r\nhttps://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/sms-pumping-fraud-solutions\r\nPage 5 of 5",
	"extraction_quality": 1,
	"language": "EN",
	"sources": [
		"MITRE"
	],
	"origins": [
		"web"
	],
	"references": [
		"https://www.twilio.com/en-us/blog/sms-pumping-fraud-solutions"
	],
	"report_names": [
		"sms-pumping-fraud-solutions"
	],
	"threat_actors": [],
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