spam

Trying to make sense of fraud, robocalling, and spam can be overwhelming (and more than a little exhausting). Combat telecom fraud: Understand types, regulations, and protect business and users.

Types of telecom fraud

While there are almost too many different types of telecom fraud to list them all, there are five (5) main types that we, and our customers, see most often [source]. They are:

1. International Revenue Sharing Fraud (IRSF)
2. Traffic Pumping
3. Domestic Premium Rate Service
4. Interconnect Bypass
5. Arbitrage

While we won’t go into detail about each of these (check out our Fraud Overview post for a more in-depth look at each type), it’s important to know that taking proactive steps to protect yourself and your users is one of the best ways to stop telecom fraud from happening.

Illegal robocalling

Robocalling has (perhaps rightfully so) built a reputation as being spammy, used mainly by scammers to try and defraud individuals and businesses out of money or sensitive information. There are, however, legitimate (and legal) use cases for robocalls. These can include receiving updates you’ve opted into, like a flight update or getting an update that your prescriptions are ready to be picked up. Sports teams have even been known to use robocalls to remind players to come for practices.

The new STIR/SHAKEN regulations, which go into effect June 30, 2021, rely on a technology framework designed to help prevent scammers from taking advantage of businesses and individuals by reducing fraudulent robocalls and illegal number spoofing. It verifies that the caller ID you see on your phone matches the calling party’s phone number.

Bandwidth deployed STIR/SHAKEN in their network well in advance of the June 2021 deadline. Today, Bandwidth signs over 4.5B calls each month for top UCaaS and CCaaS brands, allowing them to bypass the lengthy STIR/SHAKEN token application and implementation process and rely on Bandwidth for call signing and authentication.

You can learn more about STIR/SHAKEN by visiting our STIR/SHAKEN Regulations page.

Spam (no, not that one)

If you’ve had an email address for more than five minutes, you know what spam is. In the world of telecom, it’s mostly associated with unwanted messaging traffic that’s sent unsolicited to a user’s phone.

Companies work hard to detect and prevent spam. 24/7 Fraud Team blocks more than 500,000 spam texts every day through a combination of hands-on analysis and the use of automated tools to monitor traffic and identify trends and anomalies that signal fraudulent and spam activity.

Using call blocking to mitigate toll fraud

The use of call blocking tools can enable carriers to prevent numbers with specific unlawful characteristics from traversing their networks. These tools aim to take a proactive approach to preventing telecom fraud, by stopping the traffic from ever entering a network.

Fraud teams use advanced analytics to continuously monitor traffic patterns and potential robocalling campaigns that identify bad actors at work. Once detected, we work to aggressively leverage modern tools to block the offenders from reaching our network, protecting our customers and the entire ecosystem.