The ITW Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF), a leadership body of the international carrier industry, has today published its sixth annual report on the status of fraud in the international telecoms industry, as well as the names of the organisations that have been attested compliant with the GLF Code of Conduct (developed in partnership with the i3 forum) to prevent fraud in international telecommunications. Details of the process and the results are included in the report available to download here.
Key findings from this year’s report include:
· Fraud has become increasingly crucial at the organisational and managerial levels with 92% of carriers said that fighting fraud was a “top” or “strategic” priority – the highest on record.
· Despite all the industry efforts on combating voice fraud over the past years, 75% of operators report that the volume and impact of fraudulent traffic has either increased or remained the same with 2022. This trend has primarily been driven by IRSF, CLI Spoofing, and Call Hijacking.
· The share of operators who have seen an increase in messaging fraud has almost doubled since 2022, 61% (2023) vs 35% (2022). A steep increase in the volumes of Artificially Inflated Traffic, implementation of regulatory restrictions on voice and a lack of technological safety measures are some the key factors.
· 75% of carriers report additional regulatory scrutiny resulting from unwanted traffic and 72% report increased regulatory action. Carriers agree that stronger industry collaboration is vital to be able to decrease the levels of unwanted traffic.
· Only 50% of carriers report successful dispute resolution in less than 40% of cases, what proves that more needs to be done on this front.
· 23 international carriers have been certified as compliant with the GLF Code of Conduct: A1 Telekom Austria, Bharti Airtel Limited, Arelion, Bayobab, BICS, BT PLC, BTS, Colt Technology Services, Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier, e&, iBasis, Identidad Technologies, IDT, Lanck Telecom, Orange, PCCW, Sparkle, stc, Tata Communications, Telefónica Global Solutions, Telin, Telstra, Vodafone.
“For the ITW Global Leaders Forum, the push towards a fraudulent-traffic-free industry is part of our DNA. As a leadership body we recognised in 2016 that working together to remove fraudulent traffic from the industry must be a priority and one we share collectively as it only takes one gap to allow a route to monetisation to remain for a fraudulent actor," Judit Albers, head of international business, A1 Telekom Austria, chair of GLF Anti-Fraud Working Group
"I encourage all international carrier executives to take time to read this report and use it for the basis of discussion with your teams. To make a fraudulent-traffic-free industry a reality we all must work consistently and relentlessly to ensure there are no gaps left open that fraudsters can exploit.”
Annabel Helm, Managing Director, GLF said: “In our persistent fight against fraud, the ITW Global Leaders Forum recognises the need for collaborative efforts to combat the increasing challenges in voice and messaging fraud.
"While progress has been made, concerns persist about the misalignment of priorities such as compensation models and the impact of unwanted calls on consumers. We believe that by fostering industry-wide coordination and aligning our goals, we can positively impact the industry and rebuild trust.”
