Whatever happened to telecom fraud? Does it still exist? Are you as a business owner, need to be worried? The issue of phone fraud is a major concern for all businesses, despite the many advances in security technology. Just the idea of thousands in losses to a business because of phone fraud is daunting. However, phone fraud could make your business unfit for the market and is a scary proposition. Even with the advent of VOIP technology, thieves continue to find out how to hack even the most complex systems, and businesses like mine and yours could continue to suffer from this.

Three major types of phone fraud should be of concern to the majority of individuals. The article below will cover them all. look at here by nuisance (cramming and slamming) as well as proprietary phone system (PBX and key system) fraud, voice mail fraud and the most recent threat that is VOIP phone system fraud.

Nuisance Fraud: Many of us, as professionals, will at some time or another be a victim of nuisance fraud, also known as slamming and cramming. Although it is not likely to ruin a company, it could drain profits if it’s not addressed on the phone bill.

Cramming is when a third-party provider charges for services or charges which the customer hasn’t been authorized to pay for. The charges cannot be requested or requested by your business. These charges could include services such as bogus voicemail charges, operator-assisted phone calls as well as calling program programs monthly charges including credit check services and monthly service fees. Also, fake white pages and yellow pages advertising can also mysteriously show up on your business telephone bills or be charged directly to you.

Cramming refers to the addition of costs to a subscriber’s bill for services that were neither ordered nor desired by the client or for the cost of calls or services that were not properly disclosed to the consumer. These charges are often imposed by dishonest third party suppliers of data or communication services that phone companies must allow to be billed on the bill.

Have you looked at your local telephone bill and seen odd costs from “other service providers you aren’t familiar with?” It is likely that you’ve been taken advantage of. Large businesses may have hidden charges in their bills that are difficult to spot. reverse phone may continue to run for years without anyone being aware.

How do call cell phone fight fraud and obtain refunds? Start by calling your local phone service provider and ask them to reverse the charges to the party who was responsible for the cramming. Most likely, they will. To file a formal complaint against them, call the FCC or the FTC or your state attorney general. But first, let the person who crammed you know that you’d like to offer them the chance to refund the money you paid.

Slamming occurs when a provider provides local, long distance or local toll services and an unauthorised switch or change. The problem is that dishonest phone companies are able easily to alter or “pic” your long distance service on their plans, typically at a much higher rate than your preferred or selected service provider has offered. You still have to switch all of your lines to the correct long distance service provider and receive the refund. How do you prevent it? Request that the carrier place an “pic freeze” on your phone lines. Insist on a corporate password for access to every local, cellular and long distance accounts. You should also restrict all access to those accounts to two people in your company.

The phone system is prone to fraud as well as voice mail kinds of frauds remain common for many businesses. They’ll be around as long as there’s PBX and Key-type phone systems. Long distance calls can cost a lot and hackers have easy access. It’s much easier to stop this type of fraud rather than repairing it after it’s occurred. We have to admit it hackers, like other criminals, are lazy. They’ll just leave your company and move on to other things if they have the proper safeguards. read here is to ensure that your phone system manufacturer supplied master default passwords for your phone and voicemail systems are changed at your place of residence. Hackers have access to these passwords and could hack your system easily should they be able. In find more , many of these phone system master passwords (i.e. Many of these master passwords (i.e. Avaya Siemens, Nortel Mitel, Cisco, Mitel, Mitel and Mitel) are available online. Change your password by calling the organization that manages your phone system.

It is also important to make sure that your telephone systems’ remote access is secure. Access to your phone system remotely can be secured using security encryption technology. Then, ensure that your employees don’t use easy passwords like “1111” for accessing their voicemail boxes. These passwords are easily stolen. Set your voice mail system to auto remind employees update their passwords each 90 days at minimum. When employees leave your company, ensure that you remove their voicemail accounts as quickly as possible. Why? Hackers take control of the voicemail box and records the word “yes.” The hacker contacts an outside operator and connects a third-party. The operator then asks if you’re willing to pay third party charges to cover Mr. Jones’ calls. The voice mail box responds, “yes”, as it was programmed.

A major risk to businesses present day is the issue of weak connections in the personnel, particularly the receptionist at the company. This is sometimes referred to as “social engineering fraud”. The employees and your receptionist are on guard for any calls that indicate an individual may identify himself/herself as someone who is testing the lines of the company that owns the phone. They might say “I’m employed by your organization and I’m conducting tests on your telephone systems. I’d like to transfer you to a specific extension.” To forward a caller’s number to an exact number, first dial 9 to access the outside line. “Dialing the number 0” will open the line to the operator that can make a call from anywhere in the world. The calls are then charged back to your company. Hackers have also been known to use other ploys for example, such as finding out who are the board members for large companies and then impersonating that individual on a call to that company. Because board members rarely interact with receptionists as often as employees, it’s possible that the receptionist will not recognize their voice. But, because of the board members’ prestige, influence or status within the business, receptionists are fully aware of their power, which is why the person calling them can have unlimited transfer ability to commit crimes. Most often the perpetrator isn’t identified until the bill is due. Warn the receptionist and employees of this scheme. Numerous companies raked in thousands of dollars from overseas calls because of this fraud.

Look out for a toll-free number that your business can make calls to inbound numbers. Hackers are able to call the number toll free and make use of codes and features to place calls to other countries or even make service charges for paid-calling services.

Another thing to consider is to limit certain conference and call forwarding features in your phone system for business which could aid hackers in forwarding calls on your dime. To ensure your phone system’s security, talk to your provider of phone systems to perform a vulnerability assessment. Many of the largest manufacturers of telephone equipment, Siemens, Avaya, Nortel and Mitel have security bulletins and security support programs to help keep your systems safe and up to date.

VoIP fraud: The third and final concern regarding telecom voice fraud to be addressed is the most recent threat to companies and that’s VOIP fraud. The fraud involving Voice over IP is in its early stages but it is becoming more common. Again, as previously stated in the earlier part about phone system fraud, one of the most effective ways to avoid this type of fraud is to alter the system passwords in your VoIP phone system.

Recent attacks against VOIP systems are beginning to attract greater attention, but the actual instances of fraud are just beginning to become an issue. In 2007, two people were arrested because they routed calls via unprotected network ports at other companies to route calls onto providers. Two men routed half a billion calls to a VoIP service during three weeks. Federal investigators believe the two perpetrators earned up to $1 million through the scam. While actual instances of VOIP fraud are not common but it is possible to cause significant harm by exploiting security holes and weaknesses, which are becoming more common.

VoIP hackers can exploit passwords in companies’ systems in order to access VoIP systems. They also have the ability to steal millions of minutes of long-distance service. How? Hackers research VOIP vendor security bulletins and gather public information on company IP addresses published online, which permits them to access the client’s systems. Hackers design and implement custom software code to decipher access codes, access gateways and ports for data, and attack computers. Hackers may be able to use default or poorly picked passwords.

To stop these attacks against your business and stay up-to-date with the latest security technology and VOIP fraud prevention advice and recommendations, talk to the VOIP equipment suppliers and ask specific questions on how you can best safeguard your systems. If whitepages reverse phone are the owner of a massive VOIP system, it may be beneficial to engage a professional to conduct a security audit on your system. IP business users and IT administrators must make use of the most advanced encryption methods for their network access and train and monitor their employees in the effective protection of company information and IP system information.

An extensive telecommunications audit is the most effective way to determine if there is any fraud on the telecoms in an company.