SMS Spoofing (Interconnect)

SMS spoofing on interconnect refers to messages that arrive at an operator's SMSC with a forged originator address, allowing fraudsters to impersonate banks, governments, or trusted brands for phishing or fraud. It exploits weak validation between SMS aggregators and the SS7/SMPP interconnect, where the originating address is treated as untrusted information. SMS firewalls, sender-ID registries, and SMS Home Routing reduce exposure, alongside emerging RCS Business Messaging with verified senders.

Categories: Radio Access NetworkCore NetworkSignaling

SMS Spoofing (Interconnect) in context

The radio access network is where mobile devices attach to the operator's infrastructure. Attacks in this layer include IMSI catching, rogue base stations and downgrade attacks; defenses rest on mutual authentication, integrity-protected signaling and Open RAN supply-chain hygiene.

The mobile core carries subscriber sessions, mobility and policy. In 4G it is the EPC (MME, HSS, S/PGW); in 5G it is the Service-Based Architecture with AMF, SMF, UPF, AUSF, UDM and the NRF.

To place SMS Spoofing (Interconnect) in the wider telecom-security picture, review Provide Subscriber Information (PSI), SC, Service-Based Architecture (SBA) Security, S1AP, N3 and IMS: each entry cross-references back to this page so you can walk the topic in either direction.

Related terms

Related topic hubs

  • Signaling Firewall Unified SS7/Diameter/GTP/SMS signaling firewall framework.
  • SMS Firewall SMS spam, phishing, A2P bypass and MAP-layer SMS filtering.
  • SS7 Firewall GSMA FS.11 category 1/2/3 SS7 message screening at the STP edge.
  • SS7 Security SS7/MAP/CAP/SCCP attacks and defenses across 2G/3G interconnect.

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