Toll Fraud Can Take a Big Toll on SMBs

  • 22 October 2014
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By Richard Adhikari • E-Commerce TimesECT News Network
10/22/14 7:16 AM PT

 
SMB owners take note: If your phone company doesn't waive charges for fraudulent use of your account, you may want to look into using a different provider. Losses due to hackers taking over VoIP lines and using them to place calls to premium charge-by-the-minute numbers easily can hit six figures while you're at home enjoying Sunday dinner with your family.
 
 
Toll fraud -- the hijacking of a phone system to dial out to premium numbers in distant countries at several dollars a minute -- costs companies more than US$4.7 billion a year, up nearly $1 billion from 2011. It affects mostly SMBs, according to a report in The New York Times.
The Communications Fraud Control Association verified those figures, but it currently does not break them down by how many victims are SMBs and how many are large enterprises, CFCA Executive Director Roberta Aronoff told the E-Commerce Times.
Major carriers, such as the companies that make up the CFCA, have sophisticated fraud systems in place to catch hackers, and they can afford to credit customers for fraudulent charges, noted the Times. However, SMBs often use local carriers, which lack such antifraud systems, and they sometimes insist their customers pay up for fraudulent calls.
There are no laws protecting phone customers from fraud like those that protect credit card users.
 
 
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