Phone Fraud Still a Problem For U.S. Businesses

Whatever happened to telecom fraud? Is it still a problem? Should phone call from computer as a business owner be concerned? Despite huge advances in security technology and greater telecommunication security and awareness for customers, phone fraud continues to be a major issue for every business. The mere idea of thousands of loss to businesses as a result of fraud committed by phone calls is terrifying. phone number can still cause financial damage to your business. This is a scary thought. Even with the advent of VOIP technology, thieves have continued to figure out ways to hack even most complicated systems and companies like mine and yours could still suffer as a result.

Three types of phone frauds should worry the majority of people. This article will discuss the three types of phone fraud. Nuisance fraud (cramming and slamming) and proprietary phone system (PBX and key system) fraud as well as voice mail fraud. the most recent threat, VOIP phone system fraud.

call a phone are most likely to come across nuisance fraud at one time or another. Also called slamming, scrambling, and other types of fraud. The majority of the time, nuisance fraud will not be a major factor in a company's success when it occurs but it could drain revenue if not properly inspected in the telephone bill.

Cramming occurs the process whereby a third party charges for services and fees which the client didn't authorize. The charges cannot be requested or requested by your company. They could include items and services like bogus voice mail charges operators assisted calls call card services, monthly service fees as well as credit check services. It is also possible to be charged directly for bogus yellow pages or white pages for advertising.

Cramming is the practice of adding charges to a subscriber’s phone bill for services that were not ordered or desired by the client or fees for services or calls that were not disclosed to the consumer. These charges are often imposed by dishonest third party suppliers of data or communication services that telephone companies are required to allow to be billed on the bill.

Have you ever looked over your bill for your phone and find unusual charges from "other service providers" which you're not familiar with? Chances are you have been scammed. For businesses with large budgets these charges are hidden deeply in the bills and are hard to see and may continue for years, month after month without getting recognized.

How can you stop cramming and get refunds? First, call your local phone service provider and ask them to reverse the charges to the person who did the wrong. Most cases can be reversed. To file a complaint against them, you can contact the FCC or the FTC, or the state attorney general. First, you must let the crammer know that you'd like to offer them the chance to refund your money.

Slamming occurs when a provider provides long distance, local or local toll service , and an unauthorised change or switch. It can be a frustrating experience as untruthful phone companies can be able to easily alter or "pick" your long-distance services for their plans, at a greater price than the one that you had selected. However, you must switch all your lines to the right long distance provider and get a refund. How do you prevent it? Request that the carrier place a "pic freeze" on your phone lines. Insist on a corporate password for access to every local, cellular and long distance telephone accounts. restrict all access to those accounts to two important people in your business.

call your phone and the phone system fraud: These types of scams remain problematic for many companies and will continue to persist for as long as businesses have PBX and Key type phone systems in place and long distance calls cost money , and hackers can easily gain access. Preventing this kind of fraud is a lot easier than fixing it after it has happened. And let's face it, like most criminals hackers are lazy and they'll leave your company alone and go someplace else provided that your system is protected by the necessary safeguards in place. The first step is to ensure that your phone system manufacturer provided master default passwords for your phone and voicemail systems are updated at the time of your visit. Hackers have access to these passwords and can hack your system easily should they be able. In fact, many of these master passwords (i.e. : Avaya, Siemens, Nortel, Mitel, Cisco) are online and are accessible to anyone. Change your password by calling the organization that manages your telephone system.

Also, make sure that your remote access to you phones is secure. Access to your phone system remotely can be secured using security encryption technology. Also, make sure that employees aren't using simple passwords like "1111" for accessing their voicemails. These passwords are easily stolen. You could also set up your voicemail system so that it reminds users to update their passwords at least every 90 days. Make sure you erase all voice messages which haven't been utilized by employees after they leave the company. Why? Hackers gain control over the voicemail mailbox and starts recording "yes" He then places the call with a third party, and tells the outside operator to call the number for your former employee's old mailbox. The operator asks you if you are willing to pay third-party charges to cover Mr. Jones' calls. The voice mail box responds, "yes", as it was programmed.

Another major threat to companies today is the problem of weak relationships in their personnel, particularly the receptionist at the company. It is often referred to as "social engineering fraud." Your receptionist and employees should be on guard for calls that's received, where the caller may identify themselves as someone working for the company that is testing lines. phone call from computer might hear them speak to you "I'm with your company and I'm conducting tests on your phone systems. Transfer me to a specific extension." Transferring a caller's number to specific digits first accesses an outside line "dialing 9" and "dialing the number 0" opens the line to an outside operator who will make the call anywhere within the world for thieves. phone call online are then being billed to your business. Hackers may also employ different techniques, for instance, identifying the directors of large corporations and then impersonating them when they make calls made to your company. Because board members do not have contact with receptionists as frequently as employees, it is possible for the receptionist to not be able to recognize their voice. However, due to a board member's prestige, authority or standing in the company, the receptionists are aware of their authority, and the person calling them can gain unlimited transfer power to commit crimes. mobile phone is usually not identified until after the receipt of the bill. This scam should be disclosed to both receptionists and employees. online phone call raked in thousands of dollars in international calls due to this ploy.

Keep an eye out for a toll-free number which your company can use for inbound calls. Hackers can call the toll-free number and make use of features and codes to make calls overseas and to ring up fees for paid calling services.

Another thing you should do is limit some calls forwarding and conferencing functions on your company phone system which could aid hackers in forwarding calls on your dime. To ensure your phone's security, talk to the vendor of your phone system to conduct a vulnerability evaluation. Many of the major telephone equipment makers, such as Siemens, Nortel, Nortel and Mitel are armed with security bulletins to assist in keeping your system safe.

VOIP fraud Third and final telecom voice fraud concern to be addressed is the most recent threat to businesses and that is VOIP fraud. The fraud involving Voice over IP is still in its infancy but is becoming more widespread. As discussed in the previous section regarding 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 increasing attention to recent attacks on VOIP systems, but actual instances of documented fraud are now only beginning to be a problem. In 2007, two individuals were detained after they routed calls via unprotected network ports from other companies in order to divert calls onto providers. Two men sent half a billion calls to a VoIP provider during three weeks. Federal investigators believe that the two made as much as $1m from the fraud. While actual instances of VOIP fraud are not common however, it is still possible to cause significant damage through exploiting security gaps and weaknesses, which are becoming more common.

VOIP hackers can use system passwords to gain access to company VoIP voice systems, the potential to steal millions of minutes of long distance service. How? Hackers read up on VOIP vendor security bulletins and collect public information about the IP addresses of companies that are published on the internet, which allows them to hack into the client's systems. Hackers create and use customized software to decipher access codes, access gateways and ports for data and even access computer systems. Hackers may be able to effortlessly utilize default passwords or badly chosen passwords.

They can be thwarted and you need to stay current with the latest technologies for security and fraud prevention guidelines. Talk with the VOIP equipment suppliers to ask for specific information on how best to protect your system. If you own a huge VOIP system, it may be beneficial to have a professional perform a security audit of your system. IP business customers and IT managers need to utilize the most recent encryption methods to access their networks and train and monitor their employees on effective safeguarding of company data as well as IP system details.

A thorough audit of telecommunications is the best method to determine if there is any type of telecom fraud within an company.

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Pub: 15 Sep 2023 10:36 UTC
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