Telecoms firm finds a way to cut off the phone fraudsters

Feb 26 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

CRIMINALS who are stealing thousands of pounds from businesses in the region every week by hacking into their telephone systems could soon be stopped by a North East telecoms firm.

Hackers are ripping off businesses by breaking into their telephone networks, creating a non-geographic number and then selling cut-price global calls mostly to students in the region who have moved here from overseas.

The system, known as ‘dial through fraud’, means criminals can also sell cheap calls to premium-rate numbers such as pornographic chat lines which results in businesses stumping up for hugely inflated phone bills for calls made all over the world, around the clock and often lasting one or two hours at a time.

It is estimated that this type of fraud costs the UK telecoms sector around £1.3bn each year, while The Journal understands that it cost one leading North East IT firm over £5,000 in a weekend.

With businesses suffering at the hands of the recession and cost-cutting plans seemingly at the top of everyone’s agenda companies can ill- afford to leak money through fraud in the current climate.