Commsrisk has added a new SMS-blocking map to the Global Fraud Dashboard. The map collates public information about the extent to which fraudulent, spam and other potentially harmful SMS messages are being blocked before they reach consumers.
The map uses data published by national authorities where available. Where no national total has been found, figures published by major telcos are used instead. These figures are converted into a common score: the number of SMS messages blocked per day per million inhabitants. Deeper shades of green indicate higher blocking scores. Countries shown in yellow are known to have SMS blocking, but no usable public statistic has yet been found.
Among countries with scorable public data, the Philippines currently has the highest rate, at 114,682 blocked SMS per million inhabitants per day. Malaysia follows with 42,297, Norway with 31,430, and the United Kingdom with 26,792. At the lower end, Poland’s published figure equates to just 141 blocked SMS per million inhabitants per day.
Put another way, the Philippines’ reported blocking rate is equivalent to one blocked SMS for every nine people each day. The UK figure is roughly one for every 37 people each day, while Poland’s is roughly one for every 7,000 people each day.
These comparisons should be interpreted with care. A high score does not automatically mean a country has a worse SMS fraud problem than its peers. It may reflect more attempted abuse, broader definitions of what is being blocked, more aggressive filtering, better coverage in the published figures, or a combination of those factors.
The purpose of the map is to make these differences easier to see. It gives regulators, operators and researchers a simple way to compare published blocking figures, and to ask why some SMS firewalls appear to be working far harder than others.
The map will continue to expand as Commsrisk finds new public data from national authorities, regulators, industry bodies and telcos. Scores will also be updated when newer blocking figures become available.
You can visit the map here, and mouse over individual countries to see their reported rate of SMS blocking.
