How to protect your business from telephone fraud
Overtaking credit card fraud, telephone fraud is now the most common and costly type of fraud in the UK, writes Hannah Douglas, one of Network Telecom’s team of dedicated account managers.
Four times greater than credit card fraud, telecoms fraud, or ‘dial-in fraud’ as it’s sometimes known, is costing businesses over £1.5 billion a year. But what can you do to protect your business from falling victim to these criminal scams? Here are ten tips to help improve your security:
Lock down and restrict international and premium rate access if you don’t need it
Change all your access codes and passwords, removing any default password settings. Be sure to avoid obvious choices like 000, 1234 and extension numbers
Think about limiting call types per extension. Do all your users need to be able to make international and premium rate calls?
Review, control and deactivate access via the company PBX for remote workers
Make sure your dedicated comms room is secure and that access is restricted
Ensure that you are fully familiar with the functionality and capabilities of your business phone system so that you can monitor and restrict access to any services that you don’t use
Block access to mailboxes on the system that aren’t being used
Keep an eye out for evidence of hacking such as calls outside of business hours and not being able to obtain an outbound line
Regularly review call usage and identify any irregular calling patterns
Our Fraud Monitor service is included with all our office phone system packages. This means that your calls will be monitored 24/7 and we will contact you immediately if we spot anything suspicious, setting up a call barring service to stop any further charges being made. If your business does become a victim of telecom fraud then all the costs and charges would also be covered by us.
If you have any more questions about telephone fraud and protecting your business, call Hannah and the team on 01952 221 312 or email enquiries@networktelecom.co.uk.
