What happened to fraud in the telecom industry? Do you think it is still around? Do you as a business owner, need to be worried? Fraudulent phone calls are a concern to all companies, regardless of the advancements in technology for security. The mere idea of thousands of dollars in the loss of a company because of fraud on the phone is a daunting thought. The fact is that phone fraud is still a threat that could put your business out of the market and is terrifying. Despite the advancement of VOIP technology, thieves continue to discover ways to hack into even the most complex systems. Companies such as mine and ours can be harmed by this.

There are three primary kinds of phone frauds that all of us should be worried about and will be dealt with in this piece. Nuisance fraud (cramming or slamming) and fraud on the telephone system owned by the company (PBX key system, PBX), voice mail fraud and, the latest problem, fraud on VoIP phones.

Nuisance Fraud: Most of us who are professionals will at one time or another encounter nuisance fraud, otherwise called cramming and slamming. While nuisance fraud is unlikely to ruin a business, it can deplete revenues if it’s not included on the phone bill.

Cramming happens when a third party provider charges fees and services that the customer has not authorized. These charges aren’t ordered nor desired by your company. They can be a result of products and services, such as fake voice mail service charges operators assisted calls calling card programs, monthly service charges and credit check services. Additionally, you could be charged directly for fake white pages or yellow pages for advertising.

Cramming is the addition of charges to a subscriber’s telephone bill for services which were not requested nor ordered by the customer, or for fees for services or calls that were not properly disclosed to the consumer. The charges are usually imposed by unscrupulous third-party suppliers of communications and data services that telephone companies are required by law, to allow the third-party to place on the bill.

Have you ever looked at your bill for your phone and find odd charges from “other providers” that you didn’t recognize? It is likely that you’ve been taken advantage of. For businesses with large budgets they are often buried deep in the bills. They are hard to spot, and can go on for many years, month after month, without being recognized.

What can you do to stop the cramming process and receive refunds? First, call your local telephone provider and request them to reverse the charges to the offending party. read here will. To file a complaint against them, call the FCC or the FTC, or your state attorney general. The first step is to make sure that the person who crammed you understands that you want to give them the chance to reimburse your money.

Slamming can occur when there is click for info or change of a carrier providing local, local toll or long distance service. The problem is that dishonest phone companies are able easily to alter or “pic” your long distance service onto their plans, usually at a significantly higher rate than your preferred or selected carrier had provided. After you have discovered the fraud, there’s an issue of switching all of your lines to the long distance service you should have and getting the fraudulent company to issue you a credit. How can you avoid this? Contact your service provider to set up a “pic freeze” on your phone lines. For access to all your local, long-distance and cellular phone accounts, request the carrier to provide a corporate password. Limit access to the accounts to two employees.

The phone system is prone to fraud as well as voice mail types of frauds remain an issue for many businesses. They’ll be around as long as there’s PBX and Key-type telephone systems. Long distance calls can be expensive and hackers have easy access. It’s easier to prevent this type of fraud than to fix it once it’s happened. It’s a fact, hackers, just like others, are lazy. They’ll abandon your company and go on to do something else if you are protected with the right safeguards. First, ensure that the default passwords supplied by the phone’s manufacturer have been changed to your current address. Hackers have these passwords and are able to hack your system if they have access. In fact, many of these master passwords (i.e. many of the master passwords (i.e. Avaya Siemens, Nortel Mitel, Cisco, Mitel, Mitel and Mitel) can be found online. You can change your password by calling the company that manages your phone system.

Also, you should make sure that your telephone systems’ remote access is secure. This can often be done with the help of security encryption technology for remote access to your systems. Next, make sure that your employees don’t use easy passwords like “1111” to access their voice mail accounts. These passwords are easily stolen. You can also set your voice mail system to ensure that it will prompt users to update their passwords every 90 days. Make sure you erase all voice messages that were not used by employees when they leave the company. Why? The hacker takes control of the voicemail mailbox and starts recording “yes” The hacker then calls an outside operator and connects a third-party. The operator asks, do you agree to pay third party fees for Mr. Jones’ call and the voice mail box responds, “yes” as programmed.

Businesses today are facing a new danger from weak connections in their personnel, especially receptionists at companies. This is often described as “social engineer fraud”. Employees and your receptionist should be alert for a call that is received whereby the caller may identify themselves as an employee of the phone company who is conducting tests on lines. The caller could state, “I’m with the phone company and I’m conducting a test on your phone systems, please transfer me to a particular extension.” To transfer a caller a certain number, you first dial 9 for access to an outside line. “Dialing the number” will open the line to the operator who can make a call anywhere around the globe. The calls are then charged to your business. Hackers can also use different techniques, for instance, finding the directors of large corporations and impersonating them on calls to the company. Because board members do not have contact with receptionists as frequently as employees, it’s possible for the receptionist to not recognize their voice. The power of a company board member implies receptionists have the ability to transfer unlimitable amounts to callers. Usually, the crime is not identified until the bill is due. This scam should be disclosed to receptionists and employees. This ploy was employed by a variety of companies to earn hundreds of dollars through international calls.

Keep an eye out for a number toll-free that your business can make calls to inbound numbers. Hackers could call the toll-free number and use features and codes to make calls abroad and also to charge costs for paid-calling services.

It is also recommended to limit conference and call forwarding features in your company’s telephone system. This will stop hackers from transferring your calls to your. Set up a meeting with your phone system vendor to perform a vulnerability analysis check that your phone system is secure. The majority of the major telephone equipment manufacturing vendors, Siemens, Avaya, Nortel and Mitel have security bulletins as well as security support programs that will help ensure that your system is secure and up-to-date.

VOIP fraud Third and final telecom voice fraud concern to be addressed is the most recent threat to companies , and that’s VOIP fraud. Fraud via Voice over IP is still in its infancy but it is becoming more common. As we have previously mentioned in the section on phone system fraud changing the system passwords within your VOIP phone system is one of the most effective ways to prevent this type of fraud.

There is now more attention paid to recent hacks on VOIP systems, however actual instances of documented fraud are now just beginning to emerge as problematic. In 2007, two individuals were detained for routing calls via unprotected network ports at other companies to route calls onto providers. Two men sent half a billion calls to VoIP providers over three weeks. Federal investigators believe the two made up to $1 million from the scam. But, actual instances of fraud involving VOIPs on these systems are still somewhat rare, however, there is plenty of potential harm since weaknesses and flaws in security become common and are more easily exploitable by hackers who are skilled and resourceful.

VoIP hackers are able exploit passwords in corporate systems to gain access to VoIP systems. They also have the ability to steal millions of minutes of long-distance service. How? How? They design and apply custom software codes to crack access codes, and gain access to exposed data ports , data gateways and computer systems. Hackers might be able to quickly utilize default passwords or badly chosen passwords.

They can be thwarted and you must stay current with the latest technologies for security and fraud prevention guidelines. Talk with your VOIP equipment providers to ask for specific information regarding the best method to secure your system. It might be beneficial to have a professional perform an audit of security for your VOIP system if you have a large one. The latest encryption techniques are necessary for IP business users and IT managers. They also need to train and monitor employees in order to ensure the effective protection of company data.

The best method to know if a telecom fraud is being perpetrated on an organization is to conduct an extensive telecommunications audit and thorough review of the phone system.