New spam label for text messages will make it harder for scammers to impersonate trusted senders

From 2 November 2026, text messages sent using an unauthorised sender ID will either be labelled as spam or blocked. The change will make text message scams more difficult.

From 2 November 2026, telecommunications operators must replace the sender ID of a text message with a spam label (‘Roskaposti’ in Finnish or ‘Skräppost’ in Swedish) or block the message if the sender's right to use the sender ID has not been verified. In these cases, the spam label will appear as the sender's name. The change will make it harder for scammers to impersonate authorities, companies and other trusted organisations in text messages. The change will not affect text messages between private individuals.

“The spam label tells the recipient that the sender's right to use the sender ID could not be verified. In future, it will be harder for scammers to make a message appear to come from a familiar company or another trusted organisation,” says Klaus Nieminen, Chief Specialist at the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom.

Organisations must obtain authorisation for their sender IDs

Since May 2026, organisations have been able to obtain authorisation for the sender IDs they use for text messages through their SMS service providers. During the transitional period, a large number of alphanumeric sender IDs and Finnish telephone numbers in use have already been authorised. However, not all sender IDs currently in use have yet been authorised as required by the process. An alphanumeric sender ID is the name displayed as the sender of a text message, such as the name of a company or an authority.

All organisations that send text messages to consumers in Finland must obtain authorisation for the sender IDs they use.

Received a text message labelled as spam? Treat it as a warning