• MEF’s anti-smishing expertise helped VodafoneThree block 2million fraudulent banking SMS messages before they reached customers

• Building on more than a decade of expertise developed through its SMS Sender ID Protection Registry, MEF applied its anti-fraud insight to help the messaging industry prevent scams in the P2P SMS channel

The Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) has been working with VodafoneThree to support the company in building a proof-of-concept to help banks tackle fraud and protect their customers.

The project has been developed by a partnership including MEF, VodafoneThree, the Cyber Defence Alliance and Barclays, and has now expanded to include The Co-operative Bank, now part of the Coventry Building Society, and TSB

Since August 2025, over 2million fraudulent messages have been blocked from reaching participating banks’ customers. This marks an additional increase of approximately 25% of banking scam messages being blocked on the VodafoneThree(1) network(2)(3).

As UK banks lose £1.17 billion a year due to fraud(4), this newly developed process helps stop fraudulent SMS messages before they reach banking customers whilst ensuring legitimate messages still get through.

MEF, which acts as the independent global voice of the mobile ecosystem, has been a champion of anti-smishing for many years, and developed the original SMS Sender ID Protection Registry in 2018. The Registry spots and block smishing messages that pretend to be from a legitimate company but are in fact ‘spoofs’ attempting to defraud the customer.

How this partnership was born

As part of the Cyber Defence Alliance (CDA) collaboration, MEF, CDA, Vodafone and Barclays were discussing anti-fraud challenges and realised that they could work together on a new initiative, with each party bringing a unique perspective and set of knowledge and skills.

MEF’s role

MEF’s role was to help identify the fraudulent messages so that the Mobile Network Operator (MNO) could block these Scam campaigns.

MEF supports this work by applying its anti-smishing expertise to intelligence shared by participating banks and partners. This enables the initiative to identify and help disrupt fraudulent messaging activity while taking steps to protect legitimate customer communications, approved campaigns and everyday person-to-person messages.

In this way, MEF worked as the trusted intermediary; operating as aggregator, assimilator and disseminator of fraudulent data within the P2P SMS messaging channel.

Building on success

Due to the success of this original proof of concept and the previous success of MEF’s SMS Sender ID Protection Registry, MEF is now working with other major brands providing the same anti-fraud service blocking these

MEF’s SMS Sender ID Protection Registry Registry deals with 318million A2P SMS messages per month, which is roughly 25% of the overall A2P SMS sent in the UK. MEF’s Registry protects around 50 brands in the UK, including 8 of the 10 largest banks and many government departments. The service is offered in cooperation with the National Cyber Security Centre, UK Mobile (the association for mobile operators in the UK) and UK Finance (the association for banks in the UK).

Quotes

Rachel Andrews, Director of Corporate Security and Fraud, Vodafone(5) “Preventing fraud on our network and protecting trust in the UK’s digital economy is a huge priority. With fraud now accounting for 44% of all crime , no single organisation can tackle it alone. We’re working closely with banks, government, law enforcement, and industry partners like MEF, to stay ahead evolving our capabilities as quickly as fraudsters change their tactics. What’s clear is that we need to innovate as well, scaling new solutions like this is crucial in making the UK one of the toughest places in the world for fraudsters to operate.”

Nick Gliddon, Business Director at VodafoneThree, said: “Banks sit at the frontline of the UK’s fight against fraud, and their role has never been more critical. Together, we’re leading the way by stepping up our work with banks to strengthen protections and accelerate new solutions. And we’re challenging partners across the sector to match that ambition by working with us to raise the bar and better protect customers at scale.”

Dario Betti, CEO of Mobile Ecosystem Forum, said: “For many years, MEF has been at the forefront of the fight against smishing, continuously evolving our strategy to keep pace with the changing tactics used by fraudsters. MEF developed the first Sender ID Registry to block fraudulent messages, and we’re pleased to have used this expertise to support VodafoneThree in this successful initiative, which shows what can be achieved when industry partners work together in a practical and targeted way to tackle fraud. The results are significant, and we look forward to seeing this approach adopted more broadly across the industry.”

Paul Davis, Head of Economic Crime, Barclays, said: “Protecting our customers’ money and data is our highest priority. With reports of APP scams originating via SMS increasing by around 40% in 2025 compared with 2024, it is essential that we continue to work together to stay ahead of new threats. By sharing intelligence across banks, telecoms providers and industry bodies, we can help stop suspicious messages before they reach customers, while ensuring our customers still receive genuine messages from us. This work is a strong example of how collective action can help tackle fraud at source and better protect consumers.”

Garry Lilburn, Operations Director at Cyber Defence Alliance: “At the CDA, we seek to bring our banking members, Telecommunication, Law Enforcement and Tech partners together to problem solve on cross sector problems. This project, initiated at such a cross-sector meeting, by Vodafone Three and Barclays bank is an excellent example of cross-sector collaboration. Working with MEF, collectively we will scale this project and its success to protect wider number of banking and telco customers”.

George Hulland, Fraud Prevention Manager, TSB said: "For too long, UK households have lost life-changing sums to cruel fraudsters posing as their bank - so this much-needed intervention with Vodafone should help cut scams off at source. Fraud can only be tackled with different businesses coming together - and this is a great example of cross-sector collaboration to protect consumers. Banks will never ask you for personal information, or to transfer money to them – so if you’re ever asked, hang up, it’s fraud.”

Chris Gray, CISO, The Co-operative Bank: "Our customers' safety is our top priority. Alongside our Cyber Fraud Fusion Cell - where we bring together expertise to spot and stop scams fast - this initiative helps tackle fraud at source. By partnering across sectors to block fraudulent messages before they reach customers, together we’re strengthening everyday banking security and keeping people’s money safe.”

The Mobile Ecosystem Forum is a global trade body established in 2000 with members across the world. As the independent voice of the mobile ecosystem, it focuses on cross-industry best practices, in particular helping members combat fraud. MEF provides its members with global and cross-sector platforms for networking, collaboration and advancing industry solutions.

Editor’s Notes:

Dario Betti, CEO of the Mobile Ecosystem Forum is available for interview and comment.

For media enquiries please contact Dorothea at Panpathic Communications -dorothea@panpathic.com + 44 20 8891 2669 / +44 7930634047

ABOUT THE MOBILE ECOSYSTEM FORUM

The Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) is a global trade body established in 2000 and headquartered in the UK with members across the world. As the independent voice of the mobile ecosystem, it focuses on cross-industry best practices, anti-fraud and monetisation. The Forum provides its members with global and cross-sector platforms for networking, collaboration and advancing industry solutions.

Web: https://mobileecosystemforum.com

Twitter/X: https://x.com/mef

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mobile-ecosystem-forum

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MobileEcosystemForum

(1) Estimate percentage based on 7726 report volumes from the date the POC went live to current date

(2) Annual Fraud Report 2025, UK Finance [https://tinyurl.com/2ctpxxm5]

(3) Fraud Strategy 2026, UK Government (March 2026) [https://tinyurl.com/3wa2nwap]

(4) Annual Fraud Report 2025, UK Finance [https://tinyurl.com/2ctpxxm5]

(5) Fraud Strategy 2026, UK Government (March 2026) [https://tinyurl.com/3wa2nwap]

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