Telecoms fraud has been with us for a very long time. It can create huge issues for both customers and service providers, so it is very important that you understand what it is and how it can be stopped.

Toll Fraud

Toll fraud is a common type of telecoms fraud where the bad actors break into a phone system and generate thousands upon thousands of fraudulent calls to foreign numbers, racking up massive bills which the customer does not want to pay.

A real life example of this type of fraud affected an American Architectural company. The fraudster broke in and generated $166,000 worth of calls in 2 days. The business entered into a lawsuit against their service provider but ultimately lost meaning they had to pay that bill. How it happened was the fraudsters gained access to one line and setup call forwarding to an international number. They set up 3 way calling to add another call lag to another international number and then they would hang up. This would set up two 30-minute long calls. From this attack, the malicious actors would have made around $40,000 in profit.

It is very important that you do not fall victim to such an attack. Many times, you will be liable for any call costs generated, even if fraudulent. You need to rely on your phone service provider and be vigilant, making sure they have call fraud prevention/monitoring.

Fraud Prevention

It is vitally important that your business is protected from this incredibly expensive form of fraud. Not many companies can afford to pay $166,000 (£117,000). Ballscoigne has fraud monitoring and prevention systems in place in our lines and this stops attackers from over a threshold number of calls. When the threshold is reached, offending numbers are automatically barred preventing any future calls to these numbers connecting.

Ballscoigne knows that telecoms fraud can sink any sized business, which is why we have these fraud prevention systems in place in our telephone networks. If you have any queries regarding our fraud systems, visit our Contact Us page and we will get back to you within 1 working day. Alternatively, use our live chat widget, located in the bottom right of nearly every page.