What has happened to fraud in the telecom industry? Do you think it is still around? Are you, as a business owner have to be concerned? Fraudulent phone calls are a concern to all companies, despite the numerous advancements in technology for security. click here terrifying to imagine the possible cost of thousands to businesses due to phone fraud. It is a fact that phone fraud is still a threat that could put your business out of business , and that's a scary proposition. Even with test phone call of VOIP technology thieves continue to discover ways to break into complicated systems, and businesses like mine and yours are still susceptible to being hacked.
Three types of phone fraud should be of concern to the majority of people. The article below will address the three types of phone fraud. Nuisance fraud (cramming or smashing) as well as fraud on the proprietary phone system (PBX Key System, PBX) Voice mail fraud, and the latest challenge, fraud in VOIP phones.
Nuisance fraud: Business professionals are likely to be a victim of nuisance fraud at one time or in another. Also known as slammingor crumbing, and various other types of fraud. Although it is not likely to cause a major disruption to any business, it can drain revenue if it is not included on the phone bill.
Cramming is the process whereby a third party is charged for services or fees that the customer has not authorized. These charges are neither ordered or desired by your company. They could include items and services like bogus voice mail service charges operator assisted calls, calling card programs, monthly service charges and credit check services. Additionally, you could be charged directly for bogus white pages or yellow pages that advertise.
Cramming is the practice of adding charges to a subscriber's telephone bill for services which weren't requested or ordered by the consumer, or for fees for services or calls that weren't properly communicated to the consumer. The charges are usually imposed by dishonest third party suppliers of data or communication services that phone companies must allow to be added to the bill.
Have you looked over your local telephone bill and seen odd costs from "other service providers that you don't recognize?" It is likely that you've been victimized. For large businesses, the charges are buried deeply in the bills and are hard to see and may go on for years, month after month without getting observed.
How can you stop cramming and get refunds? Start by contacting phone call online and ask them for a reversal of the charges. The majority of cases will be retracted. If they don't cooperate and you are not satisfied, you can make contact with the FCC as well as your state's attorney general, or the FTC to lodge an FTC complaint. The first step is to make sure that the person who crammed you understands that you would like to offer them the opportunity to repay the money.
The term "slamming" refers to when a company provides long distance, local or local toll service and an unintentional change or switch. It can be a frustrating experience as fraudulent phone companies could quickly change or "pick" your long-distance service to their plans at a more expensive cost than the one you selected. If phone call from computer do discover the scam, there's the issue of changing all of your lines to the provider you are supposed to have, and obtaining the fraudulent service to issue you a credit. How can you avoid this? Ask the carrier to put the "pic freeze" on your phone lines. Make sure you have a corporate password for access to accounts for local, cellular, and long distance accounts. You should also restrict all access to those accounts to two people in the company.
Frauds within the phone system and voice mail: These types of frauds remain common for many businesses. They'll be around as long as there are PBX and Key-type phone systems. Long distance calls can cost a lot and hackers are able to gain access. It's easier to prevent this kind of fraud rather than repairing it after it's occurred. We have to admit it hackers, as with the rest of criminals, are lazy. They'll leave your business and move on to something else if you have adequate security measures. Make sure your phone system's manufacturer has provides master passwords for your voicemail and telephone systems are updated at your place of residence. test phone call have access to these passwords and could attack your system with ease when they have access. Many of these master passwords used for phone systems (i.e. The majority of these master passwords (i.e. Avaya Siemens, Nortel Mitel, Cisco, Mitel, Mitel and Mitel) can be found online. The change of passwords can be accomplished by making a call to the company that manages your phone systems.
Also, make sure that your remote access to your phone systems are secure. Remote access to your system may be secured using security encryption technology. Next, ensure that employees don't use simple passwords, such as "1111" for accessing their voicemails. These can be easily hacked. Also, set your voice mail system to auto prompt and ensure that employees update their passwords each 90 days, at a minimum. When employees leave your company, ensure that you remove their unused voicemail boxes in the shortest time possible. Why? Hackers gain control over the voicemail box and starts recording "yes" The hacker then calls an outside call center and connects a third-party. The operator asks, do you agree to third party charges for Mr. Jones' call and the voice mail box responds, "yes" as programmed.
Businesses today are facing a new risk from weak connections among their personnel, especially the receptionist at the company. This is sometimes described as "social engineering fraud". Your receptionist and employees should be on guard for calls that is received whereby someone could identify themselves as a representative of the company that is conducting tests on lines. You might hear them speak to you "I'm with your company and I'm running tests on your telephone systems. I'd like to transfer you to a specific extension." Transferring a person to certain numbers first connects to an outside phone line "dialing 9" and "dialing the 0" opens the line to an outside operator who will make calls to any location within the world for criminals. Calls are then being billed to your business. Hackers are also used to commit other crimes for example, such as finding out who are the directors of large corporations are and then impersonating the person on a call to that company. The receptionist may not be able to recognize their voice because typically board members don't interact with receptionists in the same way employees do. The power of a company board member is receptionists have the ability to transfer unlimited amounts of money to the caller. The crime is usually not found until the time of the payment of the phone bill. Inform the employees and receptionists of this scheme. Numerous companies raked in thousands of dollars through international calls due to this ploy.
If your business has a toll-free inbound number beware! Hackers can call the toll-free number and make use of features and codes to make calls overseas and to ring up charges on paid calling services.
call phone number should do is limit some conference and call forwarding features on your business phone system which could aid hackers in forwarding calls to your account. To ensure reverse phone , you should meet with your vendor of phone systems to conduct a vulnerability evaluation. Most of the larger manufacturers of telephone equipment, Siemens, Avaya, Nortel and Mitel provide security bulletins and security support programs to help keep your systems safe and up-to-date.
VOIP fraud Third and final concern regarding telecom voice fraud to be addressed is the most recent threat to businesses and it is fraud via VOIP. The fraud involving Voice over IP is still in its infancy but becoming more prevalent. As stated in the earlier part about phone system fraud, one of the most effective ways to stop this kind of scam is to change the passwords for your system in your VOIP phone system.
There is a growing need for increased attention surrounding recent attacks on VOIP systems, however actual instances of fraud documented are just starting to become an issue. Two people were arrested in 2007 for routing calls through an unprotected network port at other companies to connect them with providers. They sent half a billion calls to a VoIP provider during three weeks. Federal investigators think they made as much as $1 million through the scam. Nevertheless, actual cases of fraud involving VOIPs on these systems are still somewhat uncommon, but there is a lot of potential for harm as vulnerabilities and holes in security are becoming common and are more easily exploitable by hackers who are skilled and resourceful.
VOIP hackers are able to exploit passwords in company systems to gain access to VoIP systems. They are also able to steal millions of minutes of long distance service. How? What is the procedure? They devise and use customized software code to decipher access codes and access exposed data ports , computers and data gateways. Hackers are able to use default or poorly picked passwords.
These attacks can be countered and you need to stay current with the most recent technologies for security and fraud prevention advice. Speak with look at here now to get specific details on how best to protect your system. If you own a huge VOIP system, it may make sense for you to have a professional conduct a security audit on your system. Modern encryption methods are required for business IP users as well as IT managers. Additionally, they must educate and supervise employees so that they can ensure efficient security of the company's data.
The most effective way to find out whether a fraud in the telecom industry is being committed against an enterprise is to perform an extensive telecommunications audit and thorough review of the phone system.