Phone fraud is becoming a real problem in the UK, costing businesses an estimated £1 Billion a year. It can result in bill shock and loss of service, which can be disruptive to your business operations.
According to a survey commissioned by ITSPA (Internet Telephony Services Providers’ Association) which surveyed 1,000 businesses across the UK, 27% had been hacked in the past five years, costing each business £12,000 on average*
How do they succeed?
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Hackers scan the internet looking for IP addresses and also traditional telephone systems (PBX’s) with security weakness or which haven’t been configured properly.
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Hackers will typically target holiday seasons such as Christmas, Easter and bank holidays when the office is quieter and closed for a longer period of time.
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The time period 2am - 6am is particularly popular as most businesses will not be operating as normal and fraudulent activity is more likely to go undetected.
The most common losses
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Compromised PBX - hacking of PBX and setting up of premium rate/international numbers.
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Calls made from elsewhere using SIP credentials.
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Calls made from VoIP accounts using stolen credit cards.
Phone fraud has become more sophisticated and is a growing concern for many businesses. There are three types of fraud attempt:
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Unauthorised calls by individuals with physical access to your PBX system. You should therefore ensure that the PBX system is held in a secure place where only authorised employees have access.
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Malicious disruption - hackers who deliberately manipulate tools, not for fraudulent reasons but because they want to cause mischief and or to exploit security systems.
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Organised crime - sophisticated hackers who are looking to generate money quickly.
What can we do to help?
Phone fraud is a problem, however rest assured, you can trust us to protect your business. We work with one of the UK’s largest providers of voice services and voice applications, who offer a number of features to help mitigate the risk of phone fraud.
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Free call-barring on all our on-network services (SIP and Horizon). We can set up a call bar plan at a company level which can be edited on a per user basis.
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Free account monitoring alerts - we can set a threshold for total spend on your account, we send an email when the threshold is hit. If it looks fraudulent we can deal with it.
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Free call alert thresholds - we can set a spend threshold on any individual telephone number, you will be notified if this exceeds the threshold and can help support you.
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Financial indemnity - we set an agreed spend level per customer. Once it hits 100% of the daily limit we set a cap, effectively it’s financial indemnity for your peace of mind.
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We can stop the calling of network barred ranges earlier in the process.
Phone fraud is a concern for all as costs can quickly accumulate. Therefore, you need a knowledgeable and proactive supplier to support your organisation in mitigating the risk of telecoms fraud.
To find out more on how you can prevent phone fraud contact us today on 01908 324270
*Comms Dealer, Industry acts to combat toll fraud, but more to do, 2017, http://www.comms-dealer.com/market-review/industry-acts-combat-toll-fraud-more-do
