Closing down on bypass fraud in SA

MavenShield SIP Fraud Protection – image by Squire Technologies.

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In some countries, including South Africa, telecoms operators are taxed on the international communications that are made in and out of the country.

This taxation has seen the rates charged by operators for international calls escalate, which in turn has driven an industry in international bypass fraud.

SIMbox or bypass fraud is when fraudsters set up SIMboxes with multiple low-cost prepaid SIM cards that are used to terminate international calls through local phone numbers to make them appear as if they’re local calls.

Here fraudsters bypass all international interconnect and termination charges while the operators count the cost in lost revenue as calls bypass their legitimate international gateways.

Fraudsters have become increasingly more sophisticated, teaming up with international partners to route significant volumes of international calls through (off-net) the internet using VOIP networks and terminating these through illegal SIMboxes.

SIMbox or bypass fraud.

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The operator runs a network protection system, which combines a big data platform with an ‘intermediate’ product that provisions their HLR and routing server. Here the big data platform detects fraudulent on-net calls routed through illegal SIMboxes.

While the operator was utilising their own products for active and passive fraud detection within their own network, they faced challenges in terms of being able to detect and block fraudulent off-net (other local operator) calls in real-time.

The MavenShield fraud prevention gateway from Squire Technologies is a highly adaptable product designed to integrate with existing BSS, fraud prevention and revenue assurance solutions.

It provides a means of taking rapidly proactive measures, in this case, blocking calls on detection of suspect traffic.

The operator integrates MavenShield, making it an integral part of their network protection system (referring to it as a routing server), to facilitate real-time call blocking of fraudulent off-net calls. Here MavenShield pulls down a regular data stream from the intermediate product, including up-to-the-minute allow and disallow list databases.

Connected directly to the operators, STP’s MavenShield receives CAMEL IDP triggers, and based on the INAP IDP message content, it either accepts or rejects calls.

MavenShield's appeal is in its high degree of flexibility, with network managers and engineers able to configure any number of rules to identify fraudulent traffic, including database lookups to outside network components. Here the operator has set up rules including screening of E.164 numbers (to comply with South African numbering plan regulations), rules to identify whether the calling party number belongs to the correct service provider and whether they’re using assigned or unassigned numbers.

The decision to block calls is based on a combination of the data stream from the intermediate and the configured set of rules within MavenShield’s business logic. This particular deployment also sees MavenShield set to export all the transaction data records from off-net calls for provisioning into the operators HLR.

Seamlessly integrated into the operator's network protection system, MavenShield has resulted in the South African operator deploying a comprehensive and future-proof fraud prevention solution aimed at stopping fraudsters from finding an easy way to defraud the network out of valuable interconnect and termination revenue.

This holistic approach to an increasing threat to operators and their customers illustrates how telecoms operators require a multi-layered approach to combating network fraud.

Bypass fraud and other illegal activity on our telecoms networks is an increasing issue that brings with it a host of problems for operators, namely huge losses in revenue, but also the potential of considerable fines from regulators and the resulting loss of brand value and customers.

All credit for this article to Squire Technologies.