What happened to fraud in the telecom industry Is it still a problem Are you as a business proprietor, need to be concerned Phone fraud is a problem for all businesses, despite the numerous advancements in technology for security Just the notion of thousands of dollars of losses to a business because of fraud committed by phone calls is terrifying The threat of phone fraud is still a source of financial damage to your business That is scary Despite the advancement of VOIP technology, the thieves continue to find out ways to hack into even the most complex systems, and businesses such as mine and ours can still suffer as a result Three types of phone fraud should concern most individuals The article below will discuss the three types of phone fraud Nuisance fraud cramming and slamming and the proprietary phone system PBX and key system fraud voice mail fraud, and the newest challenge that is VOIP phone system fraud Nuisance Fraud The majority of us, as professionals, will at one time or another be a victim of nuisance fraud, otherwise called cramming and slamming The majority of the time, nuisance fraud will not make or break a business when it occurs but it could drain revenue if not properly inspected in the telephone bill Cramming happens the process whereby a third party charges fees and services that the customer didn't authorize The charges are not authorised or desired by your company They could include items and services such as bogus voice mail service fees, operator assisted calls, call card services, monthly service charges and credit check services Also, fake white pages and yellow pages advertisements can show up on your business phone invoices or be billed directly to you Cramming is the practice of adding charges to a subscriber's phone bill for services which weren't requested or ordered by the client, or for fees for calls or services which were not disclosed to the consumer The charges are usually imposed by dishonest third party suppliers of data or communication services that telephone companies must allow to be billed on the bill Have you ever looked over your bill for your phone and find unusual charges from "other providers" that you don't recognize Chances are you have been taken advantage of Large companies may conceal charges in their bills which are difficult to identify https//writeablognet/metalbook78/mobile-phone-no-longer-a-mystery could continue for a long time without anyone being aware What can http//dinajpurstorecom/members/domainclam01/activity/372748/ do to stop cramming and get refunds Start by contacting your local phone company and ask them for an annulment of your charges In most cases they will To file a formal complaint against them, you can contact the FCC, the FTC or the state attorney general But first, inform the crammer that you would like give them the opportunity to refund your money Slamming is when a carrier provides long distance, local or local toll service and an unauthorised change or switch The experience can be very frustrating since untruthful phone companies can easily change or "pick" your long-distance services to their plans at a more expensive cost than the one you selected It is still necessary to change all your lines to the right long distance service provider and receive an amount back How can you stop this The carrier should put a "pic freeze" on your phone lines Request a corporate password for access to all of your local, cellular, and long distance telephone accounts limit access to these accounts to two important people in your business 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 be expensive and hackers can gain access to Prevention of this kind of fraud is a lot easier than fixing it after it has occurred and let's admit it, as with 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 First, make sure that your phone system's manufacturer has supplied master default passwords for your voicemail and telephone systems are updated at your place of residence Hackers have these passwords and can easily hack your system if they can get access In reality, a lot of these phone system master passwords ie Avaya, Siemens, Nortel, Mitel, Cisco are posted online and are accessible to anyone Changes to passwords can be accomplished by making an email to the company responsible for maintaining services to your phone systems Also, make sure that your remote access to your phone systems are secure Access to your phone system remotely could be secured with security encryption technology Next, ensure that employees do not use passwords, such as "1111" to access their voicemail accounts These passwords are easily stolen Also, set your voice mail system to auto ask employees update their passwords each 90 days at minimum If employees quit the company, ensure that you delete the voicemails they have not used as quickly as possible Why The hacker takes control of the voice mail box and records the word "yes" He then places the call with a third party, and tells the outside operator to call the number for your deceased employee's old mailbox The operator asks if you accept third party charges for Mr Jones' call and the voice mailbox responds, "yes" as programmed Today, companies face a different danger from weak connections in their staff, specifically receptionists at companies This is often called "social engineering fraud" The employees and your receptionist should be on alert for any call received in which an individual may identify himself/herself as someone trying to test the lines of the company that owns the phone They might say, "I'm with the phone company and I'm conducting an experiment on your phone systems, please transfer me to a specific extension" Transferring a caller to certain digits first accesses an outside phone line "dialing 9" and "dialing the number 0" accesses the outside operator, who will facilitate a call to anywhere in the world to the crooks These calls are then billed back to the company Hackers have also been used to commit other crimes for example, such as finding out who are the board members for large companies and then impersonating that individual when they call that company Because board members rarely communicate with receptionists as frequently as employees, it is possible for the receptionist to not be able to recognize their voice However, because of the board members' prestige, authority or standing in the business, receptionists are well aware of their power, so the perpetrator can gain unlimited transfer power to commit crimes The crime usually is not found until the time of the payment of the bill Warn https//wwwopenlearningcom/u/nordentofthusum-s036wj/blog/TheDoThisGetThatGuideOnPhoneCall and employees of this scam Numerous companies raked in thousands of dollars in international calls due to this crime If your business has a toll free inbound number be aware Hackers can call in on the toll free number and make use of codes and features to place calls from overseas or to charge service fees on paid calling services You must also limit the conference feature and call forwarding on your company's phone system This will stop hackers from using your phone to forward calls for you To ensure that your phone system's security, you should meet with your provider of phone systems to conduct a vulnerability evaluation Many of the largest manufacturers of telephone equipment, Siemens, Avaya, Nortel and Mitel have security bulletins and security support programs to keep your systems safe and up to date VoIP Fraud The third and final concern regarding the fraud of voice calls in telecoms The fraud involving Voice over IP is in its early stages but becoming more prevalent Again, as previously discussed in the previous section regarding phone system fraud, one of the most effective methods to stop this kind of fraud is to alter the passwords for your system in your VOIP phone system Recent attacks on VOIP systems are starting to get more attention, however the actual instances of fraud are just beginning to be an issue In 2007, two men were detained after they routed calls using unprotected ports on networks in other companies to redirect calls to providers In the span of three weeks, two routed half 1 million phone calls to a VOIP service Federal investigators think the two perpetrators earned up to 1 million through the scam Nevertheless, https//degn-sonne-2blogbrightnet/does-reverse-phone-detective-deliver of fraud involving VOIPs on these systems are uncommon, but there is plenty of potential harm as vulnerabilities and holes in security are becoming frequent and easily exploited by resourceful hackers VoIP hackers could use system passwords to gain access to corporate VoIP systems and the potential to steal millions of minutes of long distance service How What is the procedure They devise and use custom software codes to crack access codes, and gain access to exposed data ports , data gateways and computer systems https//ctxtio/2/AABQXnD-Fw may be able to easily utilize default passwords or badly chosen passwords They can be thwarted and you need to stay current with the most recent technology for security and fraud prevention advice Contact your VOIP equipment vendors to obtain specific information on how best to protect your system It may be worthwhile having a professional conduct an audit of security for your VOIP system, particularly if you own an extensive one IP business customers and IT administrators must utilize the most recent encryption methods for access to their network as well as train and monitor their employees to ensure the security of company information and IP system information https//notesio/qDni6 to know whether a fraud in the telecom industry is being perpetrated on an enterprise is to perform an extensive telecommunications audit and thorough review of the phone system