Telephone toll fraud is becoming increasingly widespread and is costing businesses thousands of pounds in unexpected telephone bills. The SME marketplace is being targeted as they are more vulnerable due to Companies perceived cost of installing protection for their telephone system/network; resulting in thousands of pounds of stolen revenue. Can you afford to lose £21,000.00 over a month as one Company did? To combat the fraudsters; LB Telecom have a number of simple methods of protecting your business by blocking potential system hackers from running up your phone bill. To find out how you can protect yourself; contact us on 0845 296 2261 or go to www.lb-telecom.co.uk
Telephone Fraud
Telephone fraud is certainly on the increase; costing businesses thousands of pounds; only coming to light when the telephone bill arrives, carried out by fraudsters hacking into the phone system after normal business hours or at weekends; when it is least likely they will be detected; then running up massive costs for the unsuspecting business. There are even websites dedicated to phone system fraud; which has now become big business for the organised criminals rather than just a buzz for internet nerds, the fraudsters know that whilst most businesses will protect their PC networks; when it comes to the telephone system companies are ignorant of the dangers until it is too late
How does it happen?
The installation of a phone system and ongoing management of users and extensions is a challenge even without the day to day running of your organisation. Minor tasks such as setting and changing voicemail passwords are often forgotten or people choose a password that is easy to remember, and as such easy to guess. Fraudsters know this and randomly and routinely dial into a phone system, locate a voicemail box that is not secure and dial out to anywhere they choose. They will occasionally use a network of telephone systems to reduce detection rates and even if a robust system of changing voicemail passwords is in place the hackers could attack the system via the remote diagnostics service. Using software available on the internet they can hack the engineering or manufacturer developer passwords in order to reprogram the switch. Unfortunately voice security is a widespread issue and we sometimes need to look inward at rogue members of staff; who have been known to leak passwords for these purposes.
How can it be stopped?
The Voice Firewall is an anti-fraud system that monitors dialled calls and electronically disconnects any pre-set unauthorised numbers. The Voice Firewall applies your rules, set to match your business hours all day, every day, in and out of working hours. You are in control and can stop all calls or perhaps at night and weekends allow calls to special numbers, emergency services and staff home numbers. You can even limit the number of simultaneous calls if required. The Voice Firewall ensures peace of mind knowing the functionality and integrity of the phone system is being maintained at all times.
