What is Toll Fraud

A fraudulent attempt by a hacker to gain unlawful remote access to a phone system. Attacks are often highly organized from an automated server and once accessed, fraudulent calls are connected and over a period of time, can run up call charges of potentially thousands.

What You Need to Know

The global cost of telephone fraud exceeds $50 billion each year. Toll fraud, also known as phreaking is a risk to businesses of any size and not just limited to large enterprises. Attackers use automated tools to locate and compromise vulnerable systems and once compromised will begin making calls that could cost your business thousands of dollars. Usually done after hours, by the time you realize it’s happening it could be too late.

This phone hacking is an ever-changing issue throughout the globe. What we know today will change tomorrow. Hackers are working 24/7 to try and hack into business phone lines. Hackers are all very different, some may be selling your phone lines to phone card system, or using it to call premium rate number overseas, and sadly some simply hack for fun.

What You Need to Do

Most company’s think that hacking only happens to large corporations, but it happens to companies of all sizes. There are many steps companies can take to try and prevent hackers.

1. Educate your employees.
   • If you receive suspicious calls requesting transfers or passwords, they should redirect the call to the phone system administrator or other knowledgeable individual.
2. Make sure all Voice Mailboxes have a Security Code set.
   DO NOT use easy security codes like 1111, 0000, 1234, or anything trivial like this that would be easy to guess).
3. VoIP, Remote Phones, Mobile App Phones need to have a Security Code as well.
4. Most Importantly, get with your current Line Provider to restrict all (International Calls) if you are not calling out Internationally. This can stop the threat of a hacker calling overseas.

This is an international issue that we want our customers to be aware of.

At Midwest Telecom, our goal is to find the best possible solution for our customers. If you have any questions regarding this or would like to schedule a service technician to review your security, please contact us at 812-421-0111 or service@midwesttel.com.