ALERT Another $166,000 Phone Bill

[stanjohn]

[link]http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/t...n-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

Yet another victim, yes we all pay even if we are protected as the cost does get shifted to us.

 

[MGD4me]

Besides following all the 'Best Practices' found on this forum, and others, I have set up a '1-900-trap' Outbound Route that simply routes the call to Congestion, instead of letting any call to the premium 1-900 service find it's way to an Outbound Trunk. This trap 'should' help as a last line of defense.

Comments?

 

[tbrummell]

Comments?

Do you allow calling outside of the NANPA? These high cost toll numbers are more than just 1-900...

 

[mbellot]

Do you allow calling outside of the NANPA? These high cost toll numbers are more than just 1-900...

Can't speak for anyone else, but I've got international calling turned off at my provider (it's just a home system).

If I ever need to make an international call I can temporarily enable it. Hasn't happened in nearly a decade of using VOIP.

Another (home) advantage is using a provider that pulls from an existing credit rather than billing as you make calls. The most I'll ever get stung for is $30 since I add $25 any time my balance drops to $5.

I realize it's not in the telco's monetary interest, but you would think somebody would get wise and offer service that includes some intelligent cut-offs (lots of calls after hours or on weekends, calls to 900 or other odd destinations, etc). It won't eliminate the fraud, but it might help.

 

[MGD4me]

Do you allow calling outside of the NANPA? These high cost toll numbers are more than just 1-900...

Point taken... For the most part, NO. But there is one number exclusively "white-listed" that is permitted to be called, otherwise "I think" I have the system pretty much buttoned down, but you made me re-visit the NPA list just the same. Thanks.

 

[briankelly63]

I don't know why this problem still exists. These accounts don't have to have unlimited budgets. Carriers could help quite a bit if they wanted to by sending activity or threshold emails to account owners. You can't just set these systems up and forget them you have to be looking at logs or set up triggers.

 

[rcoates]

Do you allow calling outside of the NANPA? These high cost toll numbers are more than just 1-900...

There are hardly any 900 numbers in service anymore. The real issue is international dialing.

 

[stanjohn]

Reply from flowroute on the same article. As a customer I receive their news letter but that is my only connection.

http://blog.flowroute.com/2014/10/24/voip-security-what-the-new-york-times-got-wrong/

 

[hbonath]

I don't know why this problem still exists. These accounts don't have to have unlimited budgets. Carriers could help quite a bit if they wanted to by sending activity or threshold emails to account owners. You can't just set these systems up and forget them you have to be looking at logs or set up triggers.

We love providers like Vitelity and Flowroute for this - with Pre-Pay, and no auto-replenish, you essentially know your risk by how much you deposit. For our NANPA providers, those accounts cannot be used for International dialing and for our customers that need International dialing, we maintain a separate pre-pay Vitelity account with a small balance on it. So worst case scenario if something is compromised, we run out of money in that account, and poof- its shut down.