What Is Toll Fraud and How Can You Prevent It From Happening to Your Business?
Most people have no idea what toll fraud is. They assume that it only happens to large corporations or government organizations. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Toll fraud can happen to any business, regardless of size or industry.
What is toll fraud and what are the different types of it?
Toll fraud is the name given to fraudulent phone calls that are made using your business’ phone lines. This can happen in a number of ways, but the most common is by someone “cloning” your phone line and then making calls that show up on your bill.
There are a few different types of toll fraud, but the most common are:
– International toll fraud: This is when someone makes an international call using your business’ phone line. This can be very expensive, as international calling rates are usually much higher than domestic ones.
– Long distance toll fraud: This is when someone makes a long distance call using your business’ phone line. Again, this can be very costly as long distance calling rates are usually higher than local ones.
– Local toll fraud: This is when someone makes a local call using your business’ phone line.
How can you prevent toll fraud from happening to your business phone system or account(s)?
Toll fraud is the illegal use of your business phone system to make long distance calls, often to international numbers. This type of fraud can be very costly to your business, as you may be responsible for paying for the fraudulent calls.
There are a few things you can do to help prevent toll fraud from happening to your business:
1. Keep your business phone system password confidential and change it regularly.
2. Do not allow unsupervised access to your business phone system.
3. Monitor your business phone bills closely and report any unusual activity to your service provider immediately.
4. Consider using a call blocking service to block incoming calls from international numbers.
5. Educate your employees about the risks of toll fraud and what they can do to help prevent it.
What are some steps you can take if you think your business has been a victim of toll fraud already (or is currently being targeted)?
If you think your business has been a victim of toll fraud, there are a few steps you can take:
1. Notify your telephone service provider immediately and ask them to block outgoing calls to international numbers.
2. Change all passwords for your PBX system and VoIP services, and make sure to use strong passwords that are difficult to guess.
3. Review your call logs carefully to identify any suspicious or unauthorized calls that may have been made.
4. Contact the authorities if you believe your business has been the victim of a crime.
5. Implement security measures to help prevent toll fraud from happening in the future, such as call filtering and real-time monitoring of call activity.