New ways of beating the cheats in the telecoms sector was the main discussion point at the Telecoms Fraud and Risk Management Summit in Barcelona chaired by Roscom’s Operations Director, Mandy Blackburn.
Optimising revenue for the network operators while minimising fraud is an issue the team at Roscom is continuously working on – using innovative techniques from our own design engineers and developers.
Global expert investigators working for the network operators shared their knowledge and experience in the sector. The keynote speakers included operators from Swisscom, Telefonica Spain, Vodafone Portugal, Proximus Belgium and Telia Finland. They gave an insight into the profile of who the fraudsters are, what they want and how they operate.
Typical fraudsters are different depending upon the crime. However telecom fraud has its own ideas on the kind of individuals they are looking for and moreover the motives behind such frauds. These range from peer pressure, out of hand gambling habits, revenge or even because they simply don’t believe they are rewarded enough financially in their day to day jobs.
Some serious insights were delivered by consultants who have occupied this space for many years and have built up an art to spot the perpetrator and how to ask the right questions to a) get a confession and b) secure a prosecution.
The operators are certainly exploring new techniques to close these fraudsters down – yet trapping, prosecution and elimination still seems somewhat elusive.
Roscom’s Operations Director, Mandy Blackburn raised the possibility of hiring ex-fraudsters to catch the cheats in the same way the internet security systems use white hat (good hackers) to catch the black hat (bad hackers).
Some operators did admit they had considered this but there was a clear response of real fear around letting the fox into the henhouse!!!
Would it work? Could it work? Has it worked already but the Telco’s are keeping this to themselves?
