 communications fraud is the use of telecommunications products or services without intention to pay. many operators have increased measures to minimize fraud and reduce their losses. communications operators tend to keep their actual loss figures and plans for corrective measures confidential. according to a 2011 survey by cfca, an industry group created to reduce fraud against carriers, the five top fraud loss categories reported by operators were: * $4.96 billion (usd) â compromised pbx/voicemail systems * $4.32 billion (usd) â subscription/identity theft * $3.84 billion (usd) â international revenue share fraud * $2.88 billion (usd) â by-pass fraud * $2.40 billion (usd) â credit card fraud == types of frauds == === fraud against users by phone companies === * cramming is the addition of charges to a subscriber's telephone bill for services which were neither ordered nor desired by the client, or for fees for calls or services that were not properly disclosed to the consumer. these charges are often assessed by dishonest third-party suppliers of data and communication service that phone companies are required, by law, to allow the third-party to place on the bill. * slamming is any fraudulent, unauthorized change to the default long-distance/local carrier or dsl internet service selection for a subscriber's line, most often made by dishonest vendors desirous to steal business from competing service providers. * false answer supervision is a misconfiguration of telco equipment, by negligence or design, which causes billing to start as soon as the distant telephone begins ringing, even if a call is busy or no answer. the cost is typically subtle but recurring as subscribers repeatedly pay some small amount for calls which were never completed.http://freerouteserver.com/wordpress/2012/10/call-fraud-scenarios.html === fraud against customers by third parties === * pbx dial-through can be used fraudulently by placing a call to a business then requesting to be transferred to "9-0" or some other outside toll number. (9 is normally an outside line and 0 then connects to the utility's operator.) the call appears to originate from the business (instead of the original fraudulent caller) and appears on the company's phone bill. trickery (such as impersonation of installer and telco personnel "testing the system") or bribery and collusion with dishonest employees inside the firm may be used to gain access.{{citation neede
Fraud Telephony