The single sender ID will be progressively rolled out from Jun 18. During this period until the complete roll-out on Jul 1, government agencies, ministries and statutory boards will continue to send SMSes from their respective sender IDs.
Members of the public are advised to remain vigilant against scams while checking messages for the official gov.sg sender ID.
The consolidated sender ID is designed to give the public “added confidence and ease of mind” when identifying legitimate SMSes from government agencies, said deputy secretary of Smart Nation Group Sim Feng-Ji.
Speaking to the media, Mr Sim said the agency is working closely with SMS aggregators – platforms or services that help to send bulk messages – telecommunication service providers and their sub-brands to ensure that messages that are not from the government cannot use the gov.sg sender ID.
Mr Hygin Fernandez, policy assistant director of OGP, told CNA that additional safeguards are also in place for the gov.sg sender ID.
“If anyone were to try and register a sender ID that looks even remotely like gov.sg, there are multiple layers (of protection), including a manual one where somebody eyeballs it, that prevents that message from ever being reaching the public,” he said.
Mr Hygin added that it took about nine months to plan and develop the sender ID.
The main focus when designing was to make sure the average person on the street would understand what the new way of communication means for them, said the policy assistant director.
He added: “We’ve been very grateful for all the support that we’ve got across different agencies to come onboard … Everybody getting onto one system is not necessarily straightforward.
“All the agencies have different needs and we need to support (them) all.”
