An Assessment Of Sms Fraud In Pakistan

SMS fraud has become a growing concern for those working toward financial inclusion, however, it is often unclear how widespread such threats are in practice. This multi-method study investigates SMS fraud in Pakistan through identification and categorization of fraudulent messages as well as the impact on those who receive such messages. We collect fraudulent SMS messages by various means, including byway of a custom-built Android smartphone application. To complement this, we interview people exposed to SMS fraud and representatives of mobile network operators. Based on our analysis, lottery type fraud schemes dominate SMS fraud in Pakistan, and these schemes have the greatest impact on vulnerable low-income, rural populations. We offer a simple heuristic for fraud detection that has a high accuracy rate and is adaptable to evolving fraud schemes, and conclude with a recommendation for a fraud mitigation strategy to target fraudster call back numbers.