“Your personal training account balance (CPF) has expired” : who has not received this type of SMS, sent from a number starting with 06 or 07, giving the recipient the impression that it comes from a serious sender, while he is hiding a canvassing operation, or even fraud ? From 1er January 2023, this type of sending will be impossible, according to a decision published on September 5 by the telecoms regulatory authority, Arcep.
Text messages sent by automatic platforms for commercial purposes or for notifications, such as those sent legally by Doctolib or Uber, must begin with a 09. This also applies to telephone calls. At the same time, short, five-digit SMS messages created specifically for this type of professional service will continue to exist. In recent years, SMS sending platforms favored numbers in 06 and 07, because it was cheaper for them than from five-digit numbers. The A2C, association which federates the mobile marketing companies, affirms that “the main reason for these fraudulent techniques is due to the price differential, from simple to triple”between an SMS sent by a classic number starting with 06 or 07 and a five-digit number.
Avoid a shortage of numbers
“The 06 and 07 are trusted numbers that should only be used for interpersonal use. This plan will clear things up.”, insists Laure de La Raudière, the president of Arcep. It must also make life more difficult for fraudsters, she hopes. Some numbers in 06 and 07, as well as those using geographic codes (01, 02, 03, 04 and 05) may continue to be used for canvassing, but they must be authenticated by the telecom operators. “This cannot solve all situations, but it will limit the risk of numbers being stolen by fraudsters and will make it easier to trace them back”, adds the president of Arcep. This numbering plan also aims to avoid a shortage of numbers in 06 and 07 in the coming years. In mainland France, the mobile number allocation rate is already close to 90%, which leaves only a few tens of millions of 06 and 07 numbers available.
Some large SMS senders fear that the recipients of their messages will no longer look at the SMS if they are sent by a number starting with 09. Not very worried, Arcep is convinced that they will find a way to maintain a bond of trust with recipients, even with this new device. Benoît Bole, managing director of Link Mobility in France, which offers mobile marketing solutions, “hopes that this directive will give new impetus to professional SMS. It will allow, for example, to initiate telephone conversations between the recipient and an advisor, which is not as smooth with five-digit numbers”. The French professional SMS market generates approximately 11 billion euros in turnover each year, of which 60% for notifications (appointment reminders, parcel delivery, etc.) and 40% for purely commercial operations.