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Phone Fraud is STILL on the increase, is your business protected?

Recently there has been an alarming increase in phone fraud, to the point where one in every 2,200 calls in 2014-15 was a scam – with rates roughly the same in all major economically developed countries, irrespective of their security and privacy laws.

What's even more alarming is that many business owners are completely unaware of what telecoms fraud even is let alone how to ensure their business is protected.

Is your Business at risk? the answer is yes, all businesses are at risk no matter their size or location.

Read more to find out a Telecoms Hacker's story about how they target and defraud businesses every day.

"I’ve made approximately £250,000 this year, and I didn’t even need to leave my bedroom to do it! No bad eh? For someone who works when they want and who has never had a 9-5 job. Its simple see, we all love to talk, these days everyone is glued to their phones and I help people get cheaper calls. I specialise in offering cheaper international calls to those who really need it. You know expats, immigrants, people who work offshore or in another country from their friends and family. Those who need to spend hours on the phone to their loved ones; but can’t afford to pay the usual standard rates, I give them what they need for less. Best of all I make 100% profit! No overheads at all, and I work when I want, sometimes I work nonstop till I’ve earned enough to take it easy for while. I’m really lucky; I saw an opportunity and just went for it. I found out from a friend of mine how easy it is to access businesses phone systems and sell on the access details so they can be used to make thousands of international or premium rate calls. Many businesses aren’t aware that their phone systems can be sitting wide open and when they clock off at 5pm on Friday, my work begins! I can rack up as much as £20,000 over a weekend. It’s so simple, if businesses don’t go with a reputable telecoms provider that monitors their usage or bars premium numbers or certain international calls, I can easily gain access. And it’s amazing how many times I’ve guessed the log in passwords (12345 or their company name) The best of it is, unless the company had fraud monitoring software it can be up to 3 months before they even know what’s happened! My busiest times are over Christmas and Easter and I target smaller companies that are likely to be closed for anything up to 2 weeks, I can run up bill of thousands in that time. I don’t feel bad about it, if I didn’t do it someone else would. You think they or their telecoms provider would be more vigilant. It’s not like insurance covers them when the get a £30,000 phone bill, the calls have been made so the bill has to get paid. My job is getting harder as telecom provider have tracking services and call logging software that means that any irregular activity is flagged up instantly, but I just try to gain access to another system. After all every business has a telephone lines don’t they?” 

Telecoms Fraud can be catastrophic to a small businesses as it can accumulate debts they simply cannot pay. Clyde Solutions can help protect your business for more info click here