Telecoms are arguably at the heart of all businesses as they allow for each and every one of your stakeholders to get in contact with you and, in turn, be contacted by you. Unfortunately, fraudsters have taken note of the importance of telecoms and in turn have targeted business’ telecoms for their own monetary gain making them an overlooked risk.
Telecoms fraud is often also referred to as dial-in fraud, fixed line fraud, mobile phone fraud, PBX fraud and phone hacking. It is said to cost UK businesses over £1.5 billion each year, making it four times greater than the more commonly known credit card fraud.
Many SMEs who were victims of telecoms fraud do not know they have been hacked until their monthly, quarterly or annual bill arrives and shows unusually high costs. Criminals are able to hack into phone systems and drum up high call charges by calling premium rate numbers, usually setup abroad. Hackers make long duration calls to these this results in businesses paying for calls that they didn’t make. The hackers then make a profit from the calls to these premium rate numbers.
It is suggested that telecoms fraud is usually done in the evenings, on weekends and during holiday periods as these calls are less likely to be detected due to little to no staff working at those times. Furthermore, this type of fraud is being used by organised crime and terrorist networks to raise and move funds.
In simple terms, telecoms fraud describes telecommunications products and services being used illegally to acquire money from unsuspecting companies.
How to prevent telecoms fraud :
At Enreach we recognise how important it is for each and every business to be protected against telecoms fraud. We suggest that businesses consider the following options to help protect themselves from being a victim of telecoms fraud:
- Discourage staff from using external devices such as USB flash drives as they can transfer viruses.
- Limit the allowance of international calls
- Regularly check call logs in case of any unusual patterns
- Remove the passwords and extensions of employees who leave the company
- Keep regular contact with your telecoms provider to ensure security is at its highest
- Update all of your staff’s passwords regularly
- Block out of hours outgoing calls
Our fraud monitor offering comes as standard with all of our phone system packages to ensure that our clients aren’t at risk of telecoms fraud. This means that your calls are monitored 24/7 so that we will not only contact you immediately, should we notice any suspicious activity we will bar your service to ensure no further charges.
Want to find out how our fraud monitoring systems can help protect your business? Contact us today via our live chat, call 0333 3603 423, or email enquiries.uk@enreach.com.