All about Telecom Fraud and How to Combat It
Telecommunications fraud costs billions of dollars each year — estimates put global losses from telecom fraud between $25-40 billion annually — and every business is a potential victim. That’s because every organization uses telecom services — voice calls, SMS, even website click-to-call — which means they’re targets for sophisticated criminals chinese singapore phone number list looking to exploit vulnerabilities and rack up unauthorized charges.
Types of telecom fraud
What constitutes telecom fraud? There are many common types of telecom scams.
SMS pumping: This involves sending high volumes of SMS messages to premium rate numbers owned by the fraudster. They make money off the interconnect fees paid by the operator.
International revenue share fraud (ISRF): Fraudsters hack into business PBX systems or cloud services and make expensive international calls that terminate on high tariff destinations. The revenue is shared between fraudsters.
SIM box or SIM farm fraud: This uses SIM boxes with multiple prepaid SIM cards to terminate international calls as local calls, bypassing international rates.
Subscription fraud: Getting postpaid connections using fake identities to make calls and default on payments.
PBX hacking: Gaining access to enterprise phone systems to make unauthorized calls.
Robocalls: Illicit robocalls may use your numbers without your consent, harming brand reputation.
