What happened to fraud in the telecom industry Is it still a problem Should you as a business owner be concerned Phone fraud is a problem to all companies, regardless of the numerous advancements in security technology It's terrifying to imagine the possible cost of thousands for an enterprise as a result of phone fraud The fact is that phone fraud still has the potential to put your business out of the market and is an extremely scary prospect Even with the advent of VOIP technology, hackers continue to discover how to hack even the most complex systems Companies such as mine and ours can still suffer as a result There are three primary kinds of phone fraud that the majority of us should be concerned about and which will be addressed in this article Nuisance fraud cramming and slamming and proprietary phone system PBX and key system fraud as well as voice mail fraud the most recent threat that is VOIP phone system fraud Nuisance fraud Business professionals are most likely to encounter nuisance fraud at one point or in another Also known as slammingor cramming, and other forms of fraud Nuisance fraud usually cannot make or break a business when it occurs however it can eat away at revenue if not properly inspected on the phone bill Cramming is when a third-party provider charges for services or charges that the customer has not authorized These charges are neither ordered or requested by your business These costs could include things like fake voicemail service charges, operator-assisted phone calls, calling program programs, monthly fees including credit check services and monthly service costs You may also be charged directly for fake yellow pages or white 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 charges for calls and services which were not made clear to the consumer The charges are usually caused by untrustworthy third party suppliers of data or communication services that phone companies are required to allow to be billed on the bill Have you ever looked over the bill for your local phone and found strange charges from "other service providers you aren't familiar with" Chances are you have been taken advantage of Big companies could have hidden charges on their bills which are difficult to identify They could continue for years without anyone being conscious What can you do to stop cramming and get refunds Start by calling your local telephone provider and ask them to reverse the charges to the offending party Most likely, they will To file a complaint against them, call the FCC, the FTC, or the state attorney general But first, inform the crammer that you'd like to give them the opportunity to refund the money you paid The term "slamming" refers to when a company offers local, long distance or local toll service and an unauthorized change or switch The problem is that dishonest phone companies are able easily to switch or "pic" your long distance service to their plans, usually at a much higher rate than your preferred or selected service provider has offered If you do discover the fraud, there is an issue of switching all of your lines back to the long distance provider that you have chosen and then requesting the fraud service to give you a credit How can you stop this Request https//documentlibreorg/4346610044/ to put a "pic freeze" on your phone lines Insist on an official password for access on your every local, cellular, and long distance accounts You should also limit access to these accounts to two important individuals in your company Voice mail and phone system fraud These kinds of frauds are problematic for many companies and will persist for as long as businesses have PBX and Key-type phone systems in place Furthermore, long distance calls cost money and hackers can easily gain access It's easier to prevent these kinds of crimes than fixing it after it has occurred It's a fact, hackers, just like the rest of criminals are lazy They'll just leave your company and pursue other things if they have adequate security measures Make sure that the master default passwords supplied by the phone manufacturer for your phone are updated at the address you provide Hackers know these passwords and can easily attack your system if have access Many of these master passwords for phone systems ie many of the master passwords ie Avaya Siemens, Nortel Mitel, Cisco, Mitel, Mitel and Mitel are available online Change your password by calling the organization that services your telephone system Make sure your remote access to your telephone systems is secured This can be accomplished through the use of security encryption technology for remote access to your systems Also, ensure that https//documentlibreorg/9512170664/ don't use easy passwords like "1111" for accessing their voice mail accounts They are easily hackable Set https//documentlibreorg/3379672974/ to automatically ask employees update their passwords every 90 days at minimum Make sure you remove all voicemails that were not used by employees when they leave the company Why Hackers take the control of the voice mail box and then records the word "yes" The hacker then assigns the call with a third party, and tells an outside agent to call the number for your former employee's mailbox The operator says, do you accept third party charges for Mr Jones' call and the voice mailbox responds, "yes" as programmed Companies today face another major threat from weak links in their staff, specifically the company receptionist This is often referred to as "social engineering fraud" Receptionists and employees must be alert for a call that's received, where someone could identify themselves as someone working for the phone company who is testing lines It is possible to hear them say "I'm with your company and I'm conducting tests on your phone systems Please transfer me to a specific extension" To transfer a caller the correct number, first dial 9 for access to the outside line "Dialing the number 0" will open the line to the operator who can make a call anywhere in the world Calls are then being billed to your business Hackers have also been used to commit other crimes for example, such as finding out who are the directors of large corporations are and impersonating them in a phone call to the company Because board members do not interact with receptionists as often as employees, it's possible for the receptionist to not recognize their voice The authority of a board member implies that receptionists can transfer unlimitable amounts to callers The crime usually is not identified until after the receipt of the phone bill This ploy should be exposed to receptionists and employees This scam was employed by numerous companies to generate millions of dollars from international calls Look out for a toll-free phone number which your company can use to make inbound calls https//documentlibreorg/7012617006/ could dial the toll free number and use features and codes to make calls to other countries or even charge service fees on paid calling services You should also restrict call forwarding and conference features on the phone system of your business https//documentlibreorg/2156510931/ will stop hackers from using your phone to forward calls for you To ensure your phone system's security, you should meet with your vendor of phone systems to perform a vulnerability assessment A lot of the top telephone equipment makers, such as Siemens, Nortel, Nortel and Mitel have security bulletins that will aid in keeping your phone system secure VoIP Fraud The third and final concern regarding the fraud of voice calls in telecoms https//documentlibreorg/6023580128/ over IP fraud is in its early stages but it is becoming more common Again, as previously discussed in the previous section about phone system fraud, one of the most effective methods to avoid this type of fraud is to change the passwords for your system in your VOIP phone system Recent hacks on VOIP systems are beginning to draw more attention, however the actual instances of fraud are just beginning to become an issue In 2007, two men were detained after they routed calls using unprotected ports on networks at other companies to route calls onto providers The two men transferred half a billion phone calls to a VoIP service over three weeks https//documentlibreorg/7186145083/ think they made as much as 1 million from the fraud However, actual instances of VOIP fraud using the systems are rare, however, there is plenty of potential harm as vulnerabilities and holes in security become more prevalent and more easily exploitable by skilled hackers VoIP hackers are able hack passwords on corporate systems in order to access VoIP systems They also have the ability to take millions of minutes of long-distance service How Hackers research the security bulletins of VOIP vendors and gather public information on company IP addresses published on the internet This allows them to hack into client systems Hackers create and use customized software to decipher access codes, connect to gateways and ports for data and even hack into computer systems Hackers can find it easy to access default or badly chosen passwords https//documentlibreorg/2103160038/ can be countered and you should keep current with the most current technologies for security and fraud prevention guidelines Contact your VOIP equipment providers to ask for specific information on how best to protect your system It is possible having a professional conduct an audit of security for your VOIP system, especially if it is an enormous number of them IP business customers and IT managers need to use the latest encryption techniques for access to their network as well as train and monitor their employees to ensure the security of their company data and IP system details An extensive telecommunications audit is the best method to find out if there is any fraud on the telecoms in an organization