Importance: High
As a courtesy, the following public service announcement is being forwarded by the Regal Information Security team.
Callback Scheme Used In International Revenue Share Fraud
Telephone
companies in the United States are seeing missed calls used to enable
International Revenue Share Fraud (IRSF). Fraudsters are using call
generators with automated spoofing
capabilities to place calls to a large volume of US cell phone numbers.
The calls typically ring once. The number displayed on the recipient’s
caller ID is a high cost international number, usually located in the
Caribbean. The recipient calls the number back
and is greeted with a message designed to keep them on the line, such
as “Hello, you have reached the operator, please hold.” The longer the
caller stays on the line, the more revenue fraudsters generate.
Recipients
do not realize they are calling an international number and that they
will be billed for an international call. Businesses are also victims
because recipients often use their
work telephone to make the return call.
Telephone companies in the
United States are charged when a return call is made because they are
required to pay a fee to transfer calls to foreign countries. The
payment is then shared
with the fraudster who spoofed the calls. This is referred to as IRSF.
Area
codes used in the spoofed numbers are from Anguilla, Antigua, Barbados,
British Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada,
Montserrat, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
These countries’ numbers are part of the North American Numbering Plan
and do not require 011 to be dialed as with other international calls.
Recipients
should not answer calls from numbers they do not recognize or initiate a
return call. Recipients will not be charged for receiving the calls,
however.
Companies
that do not conduct business with companies in the above-mentioned
countries may want to consider blocking these area codes to avoid this
type of charge.
Scott A. Dummitt
Information Security Analyst III
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