In our last few posts we have outlined some of the fraud threats that we face in providing international voice termination. Specifically we have looked at International Revenue Sharing Fraud. See my posts here and here
Today I want to alert you to the new hotspot for fraud, the Caribbean. Certain carriers in the Caribbean are reselling telephone numbers for Revenue Sharing and assigning them to hackers.
This is a huge threat for fraud. First, it is not viable to block the whole route as most carriers have legitimate traffic to the destination, especially here in Canada where there is a large diaspora from the Islands. Blocking all of Albania-Mobile is easy to do, your customers don’t call there. Blocking all of Jamaica- Mobile is a non-starter.
Secondly, the Caribbean is covered by the North-American Numbering Plan so the destinations don’t appear to be international calls. They follow the same one plus area code dialling pattern as Canada and the United States. Thus for end customers and their PBX’s, they may not have prepared for fraud from these numbers as they would have for other overseas calls.
Please be extra vigilant about protecting your networks and customers against this threat. The issue is being raised between carriers through international forums, but these discussions take time to bear fruit.
