What is toll fraud?
Toll fraud is a scheme where fraudsters artificially generate a high volume of international calls on expensive routes. Fraudsters make calls to so-called premium rate numbers and take a share of the revenue generated by these calls.
“The gross losses from toll fraud in the telecom industry are projected to be $10 billion per year.”
With the adoption of VOIP and communications APIs that make it simple to make international calls, this number has only grown in recent years.
When does toll fraud usually occur?
Around 90% of toll fraud occurs on weekends. During these attacks, fraudsters exploit their window of opportunity by generating many concurrent calls. Fraudsters produce simultaneous calls to fly under the radar of detection systems that rely on call detail records.
If you suspect fraud with your Yodel account.
To be aware of toll-fraud, Yodel has some security measures in place that prevent toll fraud from escalating. When toll-fraud occurs, we reach out to our affected customers immediately.
If you think your account has been compromised, or that your account is being actively used by a fraudster, then as soon as possible, you should:
- Contact us: If you suspect you have been attacked, contact support@yodel.io immediately with all the information you have gathered.
- Block calls to your number: If you are the victim of an inbound traffic pumping scheme, you are receiving unwanted voice calls. You can block those calls with the contacts feature: Blocking a number.