Is There a Solution to Fully Eliminate Telecom Fraud?
Telecommunications has historically been a driver for union and served as an essential bridge for delivering information between territories. Nowadays, telecommunications is not seen in the positive light it once was, due to outside interference.
With the tremendous rise of fraud in telecommunications, a call to your mobile may now cause alarm, instead of curiosity. This problem creates a headache for end-users and places a heavy financial burden on service providers.
Despite some of the more or less successful solutions presented on the market, there is no universal solution that can stop 100% of all fraudulent calls. The problem remains.
Telecom companies are paying double the price nowadays – they’re losing revenue to fraud while spending more to protect their networks.
Shortcomings of Traditional Fraud Prevention Methods
The transit space of a call is composed of multiple parties, receiving and passing traffic between one another, from origin to destination. The multiple interconnection points along the transit path give fraudsters countless opportunities to embed themselves in the call chain and commit fraud while evading detection. A lack of transparency and inadequate detection methods are at the core of the problem.
Operators and their anti-fraud solutions primarily work in isolation from one another. They lack the ability to see what’s happening on the transit path beyond the boundaries of their network. Fraudsters can reroute, spoof the caller ID or commit any number of other attacks on a call, going mostly unnoticed.
Some traditional fraud management solutions even rely on well-intended, modern technology like digital signatures or threshold-based rules. However, many of these fail to accurately detect all fraud schemes, ensuring some portion of attacks always succeed.
Moreover, most of these solutions rely on reactive methods that detect fraud attacks after they occur. Operators then adjust their system settings in hopes of better protecting themselves from similar future attacks. However, the fraudsters’ tactics evolve and a game of cat-and-mouse ensues.
STIR/SHAKEN as an Accepted Framework to Fight Fraud
Consider STIR/SHAKEN, a well-intended anti-fraud protocol introduced by regulators in the USA in 2021, which relies on digital signatures.
STIR/SHAKEN is among the most widely-recognized responses to telecom fraud today. It was initially a framework introduced in the USA, and later adopted by other countries, as a technical standard for robocall detection. It relies on digital signatures to authenticate and verify caller ID information for calls carried over Internet Protocol (IP) networks.
Yet, businesses still can’t confidently identify which are robocalls, and which aren’t. Besides, STIR/SHAKEN only addresses two telecom fraud schemes – CLI spoofing and robocalls from spoofed/fake number ranges.
Call stretching, PBX hacking, interconnect bypass and many other telecom fraud schemes still outsmart the decades-old methods, putting businesses and their reputations at risk each day. These annoyances continue to damage brand loyalty, drain finances and cut into a business’s bottom line.
How Can Telcos Stop Revenue Loss to Fraud and Return Telecommunications to its Former Glory?
Accepted as a standard for the industry, STIR/SHAKEN certainly addresses a part of the problem, but not all of it. Many telcos, understanding the depth of the problem, are working on their own solutions.
Technology advances in parallel with fraudsters’ techniques. Anti-fraud solutions based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are of the best answers yet. Their algorithms, when trained on a large data set, detect and prevent fraud attacks before they can do any harm.
AI engines are practically impossible to trick and, as of today, AI-based anti-fraud tools deliver the highest levels of protection on the market, exceeding industry standards for fraud prevention.
For example, AB Handshake’s AI Shield stops up to 97% of all major voice fraud attacks before they do any harm – the highest in this range.
Such systems operate on several key principles to offer more accurate fraud detection and real-time blocking while minimizing false positives. This includes:
- Deep-learning algorithms: self-learning and self-updating algorithms regularly identify new sophisticated fraud schemes
- Immediate alerting: automatic detection and alerting based on an established set of parameters guarantees automatic fraud blocking before it strikes
- Granular blocking rules: Once the system alerts a fraud attack, action is taken based on granular blocking rules. The system blocks the corresponding traffic for a predefined period or allows certain traffic to pass, determined based on their exact needs and preferences.
A major plus of AI-based anti-fraud systems is their integration flexibility. They’re generally compatible with all voice switches and are capable of SIP signaling and analyzing SS7 and accounting messages.
However, AB Handshake has gone a step further. AI Shield is a part of an all-in-one tool called the AB Handshake System, which allows a rare, but possible, 100% prevention rate.
How Did We Achieve This?
The AB Handshake Corporation was established in 2020 with one mission – to stop global telecom fraud. The core AB Handshake team consists of experts with over twenty years of experience in telecommunications and a deep understanding of the root causes and nuances of telecom fraud. Their experience and expertise are the main drivers behind their goals and products.
While many industry players have created anti-fraud solutions, the problem runs deep. The most successful tools are the ones backed by expertise in the telecom and tech field and an understanding of fraud specifics.
The most advanced offering by AB Handshake today is an all-in-one system combining AB Handshake’s game-changing Call Validation technology with AI Shield. By working together, these stand-alone products tackle all major fraud scenarios. This double-solution, called the AB Handshake System, is unique in that it delivers 100% protection.
It’s worth explaining how the Call Validation module by AB Handshake works, to better understand the true value it adds to the system.
Call Validation
Call Validation is based on cooperation between operators. By cross-validating the call details (call start and end and event details) in real time as a call is being set up, it eliminates all voice fraud attacks with 100% confidence before the call connects.
Call Validation eliminates voice fraud attacks between all operators using the handshake.
Here’s how it works (see image below):
- As soon as a call is initiated, the A network records key call details to Call Registry A. Details include the A and B numbers and a time-stamp for the start of the call.
- The B network then sends their respective call details to Call Registry B.
- Both registries simultaneously exchange encrypted messaging via a secure out-of-band link to cross-validate the call details.
Any discrepancy in the call details from both registries indicates one thing – fraud.
The system then triggers an alert, blocking the call in real time before it connects (or allowing it to pass, depending on the operator’s personalized settings).
About the author: Dmitry Sumin is a Head of Products at the AB Handshake Corporation with over 15 years’ experience in international roaming, interconnect and fraud management.
All operators are aligned on the call details from start to end, which brings about a wealth of benefits beyond stopping revenue loss. Such transparency along the call chain allows timely and effective traceback requests, operators can abandon outdated and costly anti-fraud systems and much more.
The AB Handshake System seamlessly integrates into the default settings of any operator’s native network without disrupting its current state, functionality or parameters.
It’s also worth noting that AB Handshake is going beyond the voice fraud problem. Currently, the company is working on a solution for SMS traffic validation.
A Bright Future
We all would like to believe in a bright future for telecommunications. Such a future is only possible with next-level solutions based on AI and ML, mutual international cooperation and new attitudes on the market.
Traditional tools for fighting modern telecom fraud don’t work. The latest technological developments, in combination with a high level of expertise, have given rise to a perfect solution, leaving fraudsters behind. The choice for such solutions should become mandatory for all reputable telecoms. They prevent and fully eliminate existing and future manifestations of fraud and help recover the faltering reputation of telcos.