What happened to fraud in the telecom industry Is it still a problem Do you as a business owner should be concerned Despite huge advances in security technology and increased telecommunication security protection and customer awareness telephone fraud remains to pose a significant issue for every business The idea of thousands of the loss of a company because of fraud committed by phone calls is terrifying The fact is that phone fraud has the potential to cause your company to go out of the market and is a scary proposition Even with the introduction of VOIP technology, the thieves continue to discover ways to hack even most complex systems, and businesses like yours and mine can still suffer as a result There are https//documentlibreorg/3052790808/ of phone fraud that the majority of us need to be concerned about and which will be discussed in this piece Fraud by nuisance cramming and slamming as well as proprietary phone system PBX and key system fraud voice mail fraud, and the latest threat called VOIP phone system scam https//documentlibreorg/6023580128/ Business professionals are likely to encounter nuisance fraud at one point or in another Also called slamming, scrambling, and other types of fraud It is not a common practice to cause a business to fail when it occurs, but it can drain profits if it is not checked on the phone bill https//documentlibreorg/4027198795/ occurs when a third-party provider charges fees or services that the customer has not been authorized to pay for These charges aren't ordered nor desired by your company These charges could include services like bogus voicemail service charges, operator-assisted call and programs for calling, monthly fees and credit check services and monthly service charges It is also possible to be charged directly for fake white pages or yellow pages advertising Cramming refers to the addition of charges to a subscriber's telephone bill for services that were not requested or purchased by the client or fees for services and calls which were not made clear to the customer The charges are usually imposed by dishonest third-party suppliers of communications and data services that phone companies are required, under law, to allow the third-party to place on the bill Have you ever looked over your phone bill and notice odd charges from "other service providers" that you didn't recognize If yes, the you're likely to find that you've seen a large amount of charges For large businesses, the charges are buried deep within the bills and are hard to see, and can go on for months, year after year without getting noticed How can you stop the cramming process and receive refunds The first step is to contact your local telephone service provider and ask for them to cancel the charges to the offending party Most cases will be retracted If they don't cooperate with you, then make contact with the FCC, your better state attorney general, or the FTC to lodge an FTC complaint First, you must let the crammer know that you'd like to give them an opportunity to return the money you paid Slamming is when a carrier offers local, long distance or local toll service , and an unauthorised switch or change The problem is that dishonest phone companies can easily to change or "pic" your long distance service on their plans, usually 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 provider and get a refund What can https//documentlibreorg/2398252984/ do to stop this Ask your carrier to place the "pic freeze" on your phone lines Make sure you have an official password for access on your all of your local, cellular, and long distance phone accounts and limit access to these accounts to two key individuals in your business Voice mail and the phone system fraud These types of frauds are an issue for many businesses and will persist as long as companies have PBX and Key type telephone systems in place and long distance calls cost money , and hackers can easily gain access Preventing this kind of fraud is much simpler than repairing it after it's occurred and let's face it, like most criminals hackers are lazy, and they'll leave your company in peace and head to a different location provided that your system is protected by the security features that are required The first step is to ensure that your phone system's manufacturer has provided master default passwords for your voicemail and phone systems are updated at the time of your visit Hackers have the passwords and could easily access your system if they are able to gain access In reality, a lot of these phone system master passwords ie Avaya, Siemens, Nortel, Mitel, Cisco are online and are accessible to anyone Changes to passwords can be accomplished by making an inquiry with the company that maintains services your phone systems Also, you should make sure that your telephone systems' remote access is secure https//documentlibreorg/9016904956/ to your system can be secured using security encryption technology Then, ensure that your employees don't make use of passwords that are easy to remember, such as "1111" for accessing their voice mail accounts These can be easily hacked You can also set your voice mail system to ensure that it will prompt users to update their passwords every 90 days When https//documentlibreorg/7027627663/ leave the company, make sure that you erase their unused voicemail boxes as soon as you can Why The hacker gains the control of the voice mail box and then records the word "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 mailbox responds, "yes" as programmed Another major threat to companies present day is the issue of weak connections in the personnel, particularly receptionists at companies This is sometimes described as "social engineering fraud" The employees and your receptionist are on guard for any calls that indicate the caller could identify themselves as someone who is testing the lines of the phone company You might hear them say "I'm working for your company and I'm conducting tests on your phone systems Please transfer me to a certain extension" Transferring a caller to certain digits first accesses an outside telephone line "dialing 9" and "dialing the number 0" opens the line to an outside operator who will make a call to anywhere in the world to the criminals The calls are then billed back to the company Hackers are also employed in other ways such as identifying executives of large companies are and then impersonating that individual in a phone call to the company Because board members do not have contact with receptionists as frequently as employees, it is possible for receptionists to not be able to recognize their voice However, because of the board members' prestige, influence or status within the company, the receptionists are well aware of their power, so the caller is able to get unlimited transferring ability to commit crimes Most often the crime is not discovered until the bill arrives https//documentlibreorg/4143949039/ should be exposed to receptionists and employees Numerous companies raked in thousands of dollars through international calls due to this crime Be on the lookout for a toll-free number that your business can use to make inbound calls Hackers can call the toll-free number and use codes and features for calls abroad and also to charge fees for paid calling services Another thing to consider is limit some call forwarding and conferencing features in your phone system for business that could assist hackers to forward calls to your account To ensure your phone's security, you should meet with the vendor of your phone system to conduct a vulnerability evaluation https//documentlibreorg/3462415690/ of the major manufacturers of telephone equipment, Siemens, Avaya, Nortel and Mitel have security bulletins as well as security support programs to keep your systems secure and up to date VOIP Fraud Third and final concern regarding the fraud of voice calls in telecoms The fraud involving Voice over IP is in its early stages but is becoming more widespread In the section about phone system fraud, changing the passwords of your system in the VOIP phone system is one of the most effective methods to stop this kind of fraud Recent attacks on VOIP systems are starting to attract more attention, but actual fraud cases are only beginning to become an issue Two individuals were detained in 2007 after they routed calls through an unprotected network port at other companies to route them onto providers The two men sent half a billion calls to VoIP providers during three weeks Federal investigators believe the two were able to make as much as 1m from the scam However, actual instances of VOIP fraud using these systems are still somewhat unusual, yet there is plenty of potential for harm because weaknesses and gaps in security are becoming common and are more easily exploitable by resourceful hackers VOIP hackers can hack into passwords on systems to gain access to company VoIP systems and the potential to steal millions of minutes of long distance service How How Hackers design and implement custom software codes to crack access codes, connect to gateways and data ports and even hack into computers Hackers may be able to use default or poorly selected passwords These attacks can be countered and you must stay current with the most recent security technology and fraud prevention tips Speak with your VOIP equipment providers to ask for specific information about the best way to safeguard your system It might be beneficial to engage a professional to conduct an audit on your security of your VOIP system, especially if it is an extensive one IP business consumers and IT managers need to use the latest encryption techniques for access to their network and train and monitor their employees in the effective protection of company information and IP system details The best way to determine whether a fraud in the telecom industry is being committed against an organization is to do an extensive telecommunications audit and complete phone system review