Verifying the Verified: Why RBM’s Verified Sender Feature is Important But No Silver Bullet for Message Protection.

Do you believe that the verified sender feature for RCS Business Messaging (RBM) fully addresses the issue of smishing? Or that it blocks attempts to impersonate well-known brands for malicious purposes? If so, it might be time to reconsider.

Don’t get me wrong – verified sender profiles are great for legitimate businesses and play a crucial role in assuring consumers of the legitimacy of A2P messages. It’s a vital response to the growing concerns around spam and smishing that we have witnessed in traditional A2P SMS.

However, there’s a catch: spammers are already exploiting sender verification to deceive consumers. Why? Because these profiles and their associated verification badges inherently convey trust—and trust directly influences open and response rates, even when it is obtained under false pretenses.

You can learn more about how spammers gain access to—and exploit—verification in our comprehensive RBM security handbook for CPaaS providers.

The verified senders feature adds a layer of trust in RBM but needs to be protected from abuse.

One Thing is for Sure: Spammers Will be There

It’s not hard to see that the legitimacy associated with verified sender profiles is highly attractive to spammers. Verification can be a powerful tool for deception if abused. The legitimacy it brings to any conversation dramatically increases the chances of spammers succeeding with scams.

While the verification feature is designed to prevent such misuse, spammers are highly creative and have already found ways to access verified sender profiles. Attackers achieve this by hijacking brand accounts, exploiting poorly protected APIs, verifying fake accounts using falsified data, or leasing access to RBM agents from less scrupulous brands. We cannot be sure about where, when, or how spammers will come up with new tactics, techniques, and procedures to gain access. The only thing we can be sure about is that attacks will evolve.

Consumers Need Verified Sender Profiles They Can Actually Trust

So, what happens when spammers exploit sender verification? Does it mean the entire verification process has been futile in its efforts to restore consumer trust in messaging? Absolutely not.

While verification isn’t perfect, it’s far from useless. For one, it does make it more complicated for spammers to impersonate brands, as they need to have access to an RBM agent. It is not impossible, but it requires significant effort. That in itself will effectively shut out a lot of spam.

But the most important perspective is that of the consumer. Without a functional verification system, consumers are left to fend for themselves against spam. Since spam is a numbers game, some consumers will inevitably fall victim to scams, while others will simply find it frustrating to find their inboxes filled up with junk. If we let this happen and don’t stop spammers from exploiting the very system put in place to reassure consumers about the legitimacy of messages, we will soon no longer have an RBM ecosystem at all.

In other words, verification needs to do more than just make it slightly harder for scammers—it must produce tangible results in ensuring messages sent via RBM channels are trustworthy. The bottom line is that verification is necessary and should be protected to ensure consumers can trust messages from verified senders.

CPaaS Providers are on the Front Lines of Spam, But a Zero-Trust Approach Can Help

Since verified sender profiles are attached to RBM agents managed by CPaaS providers, spammers can only exploit the verification by sending spam through them. As a result, CPaaS providers are on the front lines of combating spam, and they can expect to see even more of it in the future.

So, what can CPaaS providers do to prevent their platforms from becoming a vehicle for spam and protect the integrity of RBM messaging?

One thing is certain: to ensure consumer trust, we cannot rely on trust between brands, CPaaS, and RBM platforms. Trust has often proven to be an unreliable safeguard for security in communications. Perhaps it’s time to introduce a zero-trust approach to business messaging. (Yes, I see the irony here – protecting trust with zero-trust…)

A zero-trust framework doesn’t assume that any message is legitimate, even if it’s from a verified brand. Instead, we should continuously monitor and verify that every message sent via RBM channels is compliant, appropriate, and legitimate. This involves, for example, scanning URLs to ensure they aren’t malicious, analyzing texts and images to verify compliance, and ensuring the message’s intent is clear and genuine.

In conclusion, to maintain consumer trust in RBM, we must not only verify the sender but also actively verify the messages of verified senders.

Securing Messaging in the Age of Rich Media and Artificial Intelligence is a comprehensive handbook for CPaaS providers on how to protect RBM channels and keep them spam-free.

Enea’s Adaptive Firewall for CPaaS is purpose-built to protect A2P messaging and ensure regulatory compliance.