Is telephony fraud the UK’s forgotten crime?

Telephony fraud is unfortunately nothing new but with the opening of the new National Cyber Security Centre, ITSPA have seized the opportunity to demand that GCHQ work together with industry to combat the issue and make telecoms fraud a priority. ITSPA argued that “Government, law enforcement and industry need to be more joined up to help combat telephony fraud, which remains a significant problem and is estimated to add 2% to the average user’s phone bill.” said Eli Katz, Chair of ITSPA.

14 March 2017

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Paul Heritage-Redpath, Product Manager[/caption] Telephony fraud is unfortunately nothing new but with the opening of the new National Cyber Security Centre, ITSPA have seized the opportunity to demand that GCHQ work together with industry to combat the issue and make telecoms fraud a priority. ITSPA argued that “Government, law enforcement and industry need to be more joined up to help combat telephony fraud, which remains a significant problem and is estimated to add 2% to the average user’s phone bill.” said Eli Katz, Chair of ITSPA. She added “Telephony fraud is in some ways the UK’s forgotten crime. Due to the difficulties in bringing forward successful prosecutions due to the highly international element of crime, it often goes unreported by the telecommunications industry, resulting in law enforcement and Government devoting a disproportionately low level of resource to the area. ITSPA continues to work to encourage industry to report instances of telephony fraud to ensure that the crime receives the attention it deserves.”

ITSPA: ITSPA Welcomes Launch of National Cyber Security Centre but calls for it to make telecommunications fraud a priority

Entanet’s approach to security When we set out to create our current VoIP platform, security was at the forefront of our minds. Strong passwords are mandated on our system and high-risk call destinations are excluded by default. We and our carrier continually monitor and proactively block fraudulent IP endpoints around the world. We also pioneered the setting of daily and monthly account limits so that, in the event of a customer breach, the damage is limited. We are currently redeveloping our existing VoIP portfolio with further details due to be announced soon. In the meantime our existing VoIP product documentation available from synergi contains advice on how partners can take further action to limit fraud. Have your say! Is telecoms fraud a forgotten crime? Have you or your customers fallen victim to it? What do you think needs to be done by industry, Government and law enforcement to combat the issue? Share your thoughts by leaving us a comment below. Related articles