Phone Fraud Still a Problem For US Businesses
What happened to fraud in the telecom industry? Does it still exist? Do you as a business owner, need to be concerned? Phone fraud is a problem for all businesses, regardless of the many advances in security technology. The notion of thousands of dollars in loss to businesses as a result of phone fraud is daunting. Phone fraud can still cause financial ruin to your business. This is terrifying. Despite phone number of VOIP technology, the thieves continue to discover ways to hack into even the most complex systems, and businesses like yours and mine can still suffer as a result.
Three main types of phone frauds should concern most individuals. The article below will address the three types of phone fraud. Nuisance fraud (cramming and slamming) and proprietary phone system (PBX and key system) fraud voice mail fraud, and the newest challenge that is VOIP phone system fraud.
Nuisance Fraud: Many of us who are professionals will at one time or another be a victim of nuisance fraud, also known as slamming and cramming. phone reverse lookup is not a common practice to be a major factor in a company's success in the event that it happens however it can eat away at revenue if not properly inspected in the telephone bill.
Cramming is when a third party provider charges for services and fees that the client did not authorize. make phone call are not authorised or requested by your business. They could include items and services like bogus voice mail charges operators assisted calls calling card programs, monthly service fees as well as credit check services. Also, fake yellow pages and white pages advertising can also mysteriously appear on your business phone bills or be charged directly to you.
Cramming is the practice of adding charges to a subscriber's telephone bill for services which were neither ordered nor desired by the consumer or for charges for services or calls that weren't properly communicated to the customer. The charges are usually imposed by dishonest third party providers of data or communications services that telephone companies are required to allow to be added to the bill.
Have you looked at your local phone bill and seen odd costs from "other service providers that you don't recognize?" Chances are you have been taken advantage of. Large companies may conceal charges on their bills that are difficult to spot. They may continue to run for years without anyone being conscious.

What are the best ways to obtain refunds or stop spamming? First, call your local telephone service provider and ask for them to reverse the charge to the offending party. Most cases will be retracted. To file a complaint against them, call the FCC, the FTC, or the state attorney general. First, make sure that the person who crammed you understands that you would like to offer them the opportunity to refund the money.
The possibility of slamming is when there is an unauthorized switch or change in a service provider that provides local and local tolls or long distance service. The problem is that dishonest phone companies are able easily to switch or "pic" your long distance service on their plans, often at a significantly higher rate than what your chosen carrier had provided. However, you must switch all of your lines to the right long distance provider and get an amount back. What can you do to stop it? Request that the carrier place a "pic freeze" on your phone lines. If you want access to all your local, long-distance and cell phone accounts, you must request the carrier to provide a corporate password. You can restrict access to the accounts to two people.
Frauds within the phone system and voice mail: These types of frauds are still a problem for many companies. They will persist so long as there is PBX and Key-type phone systems. Long distance calls can be costly and hackers are able to gain access. Prevention of this kind of fraud is much simpler than correcting it once it's occurred and let's admit it, as with most criminals hackers are lazy and will leave your business alone and go someplace else when your system is secure and has adequate security measures in place. Make sure the manufacturer of your phone system has provides master passwords for your voicemail and phone systems are updated at your location. Hackers are able to access these passwords and could steal your information easily should they be able. A lot of these master passwords for phone systems (i.e. : Avaya, Siemens, Nortel, Mitel, Cisco) are online and are accessible to anyone. Change your password by calling the organization that services your telephone system.
Also, make sure that the remote access to your telephone systems is secure. Access to your phone system remotely can be secured with security encryption technology. Then, ensure that your employees do not make use of passwords that are easy to remember, such as "1111" for accessing their voice mail accounts. They can easily be stolen. You can also set your voice mail system so that it will prompt employees to change their passwords every 90 days. If employees quit the business, ensure that you delete their voicemail accounts in the shortest time possible. Why? The hacker takes control of the voicemail system and records "yes" He then connects to the call with a third party, and tells an outside agent to call the number of your departed employee's mailbox. The operator then asks if you're willing to pay third-party charges for Mr. Jones' calls. free phone call online responds, "yes", as programmed.
A major risk to businesses today is the problem of weak connections in the personnel, particularly the receptionist at the company. This is sometimes described as "social engineering fraud". Your receptionist and employees should be on alert for any call received in which an individual may identify himself/herself as someone testing the lines of the company behind the phone. They could say, "I'm with the phone company and am conducting an experiment on your phone systems. please transfer me to a specific extension." Transferring a caller's number to specific digits first accesses an outside phone line "dialing 9" and "dialing the 0" accesses the outside operator who can facilitate the call anywhere in the world for the thieves. The calls are then back billed to your company. Hackers are also known to use other ploys for example, such as finding out who are the board members for large companies and then impersonating the person in a phone call to the company. Since board members don't have contact with receptionists as frequently as employees, it is possible that the receptionist will not recognize their voice. free phone call online of a board member is that receptionists can transfer unlimited amounts to the caller. The criminal usually isn't identified until after the receipt of the phone bill. Inform the employees and receptionists of this scam. Numerous companies milked for thousands of dollars through international calls due to this crime.
If your business has a toll-free number for inbound calls beware! Hackers can call in on the toll free number and use codes and features to place calls from overseas or to make service charges for paid calling services.
It is also recommended to limit call forwarding and conference features on your company's phone system. This will stop hackers from using your phone to forward calls for you. Set up a meeting with your phone system vendor to conduct a vulnerability assessment ensure that your telephone system is safe. read here of the larger telephone equipment manufacturing vendors, Siemens, Avaya, Nortel and Mitel provide security bulletins and security support programs to help keep your systems safe and up to date.
VOIP fraud: The third and last telecom voice fraud issue to be addressed is the most current threat to companies and it is fraud via VOIP. While fraud involving voice over IP is still very new however, it is becoming common. In us area code on phone system fraud, changing the passwords of your system in your VOIP telephone system is among the most effective ways to prevent this type of fraud.
Recent attacks against VOIP systems are starting to draw greater attention, but actual fraud cases are just beginning to become an issue. In 2007, two men were detained for routing calls using unprotected ports on networks from other companies in order to divert calls to providers. The two men sent half a billion calls to VoIP providers in the span of three weeks. Federal investigators believe that they made as much as $1m through the scam. However, actual instances of fraud involving VOIPs on these systems are still somewhat uncommon, but there is plenty of potential for harm as vulnerabilities and holes in security are becoming more common and are more easily exploitable by resourceful hackers.
VoIP hackers could hack into passwords on systems for access to company VOIP voice systems and have the potential to steal millions of minutes of long distance service. How? Hackers study the security bulletins of VOIP vendors and collect public information about company IP addresses posted online, which permits them to gain access to the systems of clients. They create and implement customized software code to decipher access codes and gain access to data ports and computer systems and data gateways. Hackers may be able to use default or poorly selected passwords.
To counteract these attacks on your business and stay up-to-date with the most recent security technologies and VOIP fraud prevention tips and recommendations, talk to your VOIP equipment vendors and ask them questions specific to the best ways to safeguard your system. It might be beneficial to engage a professional to conduct a security audit of your VOIP system if you have a large one. IP business customers and IT managers must utilize the most recent encryption methods for their network access and also train and supervise their employees on effective safeguarding of company data as well as IP system data.
The best method to know whether a fraud in the telecom industry is being perpetrated on an organization is to conduct an extensive audit of telecommunications and a an exhaustive review of the phone system.