Notes

Phone Fraud Still a Problem For USA Businesses
What has happened to fraud in the telecom industry? Does it still exist? Do you as a business proprietor should be worried? Despite the huge advancements in security technology and greater telecommunication security and awareness for customers, phone fraud continues to be a major issue for every business. Just the notion of thousands in the loss of a company because of fraud on the phone is a daunting thought. The fact is that phone fraud still could cause your company to go out of the market and is an extremely scary prospect. Despite the advancement of VOIP technology, hackers have continued to figure out how to hack even the most complex systems. Companies such as mine and ours can still suffer as a result.

There are three main types of phone fraud that the majority of us should be concerned with and that will be discussed in this article. Nuisance fraud (cramming or smashing), fraud on the telephone system owned by the company (PBX key system, PBX) Voice mail fraud, and the most recent issue, fraud in the VOIP phone.

Nuisance fraud Business professionals are most likely to encounter nuisance fraud at one time or in another. Also known as slammingor scrambling, and other types of fraud. Although it is not likely to cause a major disruption to any business, it can drain revenues if it's not included on the phone bill.

Cramming occurs when a third-party provider charges fees and services that the customer didn't authorize. These charges are neither ordered nor desired by your company. These charges can include products and services like bogus voice mail charges operators assisted calls call card services, monthly service charges and credit check services. Also, fake white pages and yellow pages advertisements can show up on your business phone invoices or be billed to you directly.

Cramming refers to adding charges to a subscriber’s telephone bill for services that were not requested or purchased by the client or fees for calls and services that weren't disclosed to the consumer. These charges are often assessed by unscrupulous third-party suppliers of data and communication service that phone companies are required by law, to permit the third-party to place on the bill.

Have you looked over your local telephone bill and found strange costs from "other service providers that you do not recognize?" Chances are you have been taken advantage of. Large businesses may have hidden costs in their invoices which are difficult to identify. They could continue for years without anyone being conscious.


How can call your phone get refunds and combat spamming? First, contact the local telephone firm and request an annulment of your charges. The majority of cases will be retracted. If you want to file a complaint against them, you can contact the FCC or the FTC or your state attorney general. But first, let the crammer know that you'd like to offer them the chance to refund your money.

It can happen in the event of an unauthorised switching or change of carrier providing local toll, local or long distance service. Slamming can be frustrating as untruthful phone companies can quickly change or "pick" your long-distance services to their plans at a higher price than the one that you chose. It is still necessary to change all your lines to the right long distance service provider and receive an amount back. What can you do to avoid it? Ask your carrier to place an "pic freeze” for your telephone lines. If you want access to all your long-distance, local and cell phone accounts, you must request the password for your company. You can restrict access to the accounts to two people.

Phone system and voice mail fraud: These kinds of scams remain difficult for many companies and will continue to be a problem in the long run, as long as companies have PBX and Key type phone systems in place. Furthermore, reverse phone detective calls cost money and hackers are able to easily gain access. It is easier to avoid these kinds of crimes than fixing it after it has occurred. Let's face the truth, hackers, just like the rest of criminals, are inefficient. They'll leave your business and move on to another one if you don't are protected with the right safeguards. Make sure that the master default passwords provided by your phone manufacturer for your phone are updated at the address you provide. Hackers have access to these passwords and could attack your system with ease should they be able. In reality, a lot of these phone system master passwords (i.e. : Avaya, Siemens, Nortel, Mitel, Cisco) are posted online and are accessible to anyone. Change your password by calling the organization that manages your phone system.

You should also ensure that your telephone systems' remote access is secure. Access to your phone system remotely could be secured by using encryption technology. Also, ensure that your employees do not make use of passwords that are easy to remember, such as "1111" for accessing their voicemail boxes. These passwords are easily stolen. You can also set your voicemail system so that it will prompt employees to change their passwords every 90 days. Be sure to remove all voicemails that were not utilized by employees after they quit the company. Why? The hacker takes control of the voicemail mailbox and then records "yes" The hacker calls an outside operator and connects a third-party. The operator says, do you agree to third party charges for Mr. Jones' call and the voice mail box responds, "yes" as programmed.

Another major threat to companies present day is the issue of weak links in employees, especially receptionists at companies. It is commonly described as "social engineering fraud". The employees and your receptionist must be alert to any phone call that someone could be identified as someone trying to test the lines of the company that owns the phone. They might say, "I'm with the phone company and am conducting tests on your phone systems, I'd like to transfer you to a particular extension." To transfer mobile phone , first dial 9 to connect to the outside line. "Dialing the number 0" will open the line to the operator, who is able to make a call from anywhere in the world. The calls are then back billed to your company. Hackers have also been known to use other ploys for example, such as finding out who are the executives of large companies are and then impersonating that individual on a call to that company. The receptionist might not be able to recognize their voice, as typically board members don't interact with receptionists in the same way employees do. However, because of the board members' prestige, authority or standing in the business, receptionists are fully aware of their authority, and the perpetrator can get unlimited transferring ability to commit his crimes. The criminal usually isn't discovered until after the arrival of the bill. This ploy should be exposed to both receptionists and employees. Numerous companies milked for thousands of dollars through overseas calls as a result of this fraud.

Keep an eye out for a toll-free number which your company can use for inbound calls. Hackers may call toll-free numbers and use features and codes to make calls from overseas, and even to raise costs for paid-calling services.

You should also restrict the conference feature and call forwarding on the phone system of your business. This will stop hackers from forwarding your calls for you. Make an appointment with your phone system vendor to conduct a vulnerability assessment make sure your phone system is secure. Many of the largest manufacturers of telephone equipment, Siemens, Avaya, Nortel and Mitel have security bulletins as well as security support programs that will help keep your systems secure and up-to-date.

VOIP fraud Third and last telecom voice fraud issue to be addressed is the latest threat to companies , and that is fraud through VOIP. Although voice over IP fraud isn't yet widely known however, it is becoming frequent. As we have previously mentioned in the section on phone system fraud, changing the system passwords within the VOIP phone system is one of the best ways you can stop this kind of fraud.

Recent hacks on VOIP systems are beginning to draw greater attention, but actual fraud cases are only beginning to become an issue. In 2007, two people were detained for routing calls via unprotected network ports at other companies to route calls onto providers. Over three weeks, the two men routed nearly 1 million phone call s to a VOIP service. Federal investigators believe that they could have earned as much as $1 million from the fraud. However, actual instances of VOIP fraud on these systems are rare, however, there is plenty of risk for harm, because weaknesses and gaps in security become more prevalent and more easily exploitable by skilled hackers.

VoIP hackers are able to use system passwords to gain access to corporate VOIP voice systems and have the potential to take millions of minutes of long distance. How? What is the procedure? They create and implement custom software codes to crack access codes and gain access to data ports and data gateways and computer systems. check this are able to make use of default or poorly selected passwords.

They can be thwarted and you need to stay up to date with the most current technology for security and fraud prevention guidelines. Speak with your VOIP equipment providers to ask for specific information on how best to protect your system. check this may be worthwhile to engage a professional to conduct a security audit of your VOIP system, particularly if you own an extensive one. Modern encryption methods are essential for business IP users as well as IT managers. They also need to educate and supervise employees so that they can ensure efficient security of the company's data.

A thorough telecommunications audit is the best way to find out if there is any telecom fraud in an company.




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