Telecoms fraud is an escalating problem, which is costing the industry and end customers over €29bn ($33bn) each year, according to the 2019 Cyber Telecom Crime Report from law enforcement agency Europol and cyber security solution provider Trend Micro.
Telco fraud is becoming more prominent in this market because crime in this sector is seen as low-risk alternative to traditional financial crime. And it is arguably easier to commit telco fraud crime than in the financial sector. This is because the anti-money laundering controls that prevent bulk cybercrime in the finance sector are not present in telecoms, where SIM cards are used instead of traditional banking methods.
Although International Revenue Sharing Fraud (IRSF) and Wangiri missed call scams remain the two most common cases of telecoms fraud, fraudsters are evolving their techniques to stay one step ahead of carriers and mobile network operators.
IRSF and Wangiri are popular because they are easy methods for fraudsters to manipulate the carrier network – IRSF is the best known and longest-running form of phone fraud, which often involves the use of premium rate phone numbers under the control of the fraudster, which victims are tricked into calling, thereby generating revenue for them. One technique for doing so is “Wangiri”, a scam popular in Japan, where fraudsters call a victim and hang up after one ring, encouraging to call the number back.
However, there are other intricate voice fraud techniques. A technique that is most prevalent is calling line identification (CLI) spoofing. CLI spoofing is when a consumer receives a call that presents a number that is not the number of the caller, changing the telephone number and/or name relayed as the Caller ID information. There is also bypass fraud, which particularly affects countries where the costs of terminating international calls are very high – fraudsters manipulate call records in a way they are recognised as local calls.
The standardised solution in dealing with telecoms fraud is using a Fraud Management System, which involves a mobile operator using its dedicated anti-fraud team to exploit the capabilities of the system to detect and track down fraudulent activity along the network. However, today there are artificial intelligence and machine learning tools that are able to detect fraudulent activity digitally, such as CSG’s new CSG Detect software as a service solution, which do not require the heavy resources nor manual processes.
This year’s Global Telco Fraud Summit is a great opportunity for carriers and mobile network operators to grasp a fuller understanding of how fraudulent activity is impacting on daily operations. It represents a great opportunity for leading associations and regulatory bodies to come together and exchange ideas on how to overcome this prevalent issue.
In colocation with the Global Telco Blockchain Summit, the Fraud Summit will feature several key stakeholders with vested interest within fraud prevention. You can register for the event, to be held in London this autumn, here: https://checkout.capacitymedia.com/Event/RegisterOnline/a011t00000LwqKRAAZ?cid=capacityconferences#1
The Fraud Summit will also release a podcast and webinar series on five key topics that will predominately feature at the live event: Driving behavioural standards; Advanced technologies, operations and Infrastructure; Fraudulent traffic pumping; Voice fraud, and Mobile fraud. The podcast and webinar episodes will be made available on BrightTalk and the Capacity Media website, as well as Capacity Media’s YouTube channel. So do keep abreast of all of our latest digital content over the coming weeks.
