For years, mobile phone networks all around the world have been unwillingly acting as fertile ground for fraud and illegal activities, such as heavy spamming, voice call interception and call bypassing. These activities not only cause mobile operators to lose significant revenue on international calls, but it can also overload aspects of the mobile network and make networks more vulnerable to attacks.
What is bypass fraud?
Bypass fraud is a term used to describe the usage of techniques which bypass interconnections of international calls, usually by sending the international calls over the internet and terminating them in the local network using devices such as SIM boxes.
SIM Boxes are contraptions that contain multiple low-cost prepaid SIM cards from several mobile operators. SIM Boxes are used as part of a VoIP Gateway, which is a device usually used for connecting between the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) and VoIP phone systems.
Bypass fraud can be found mostly in developing countries, or generally in countries in which executing an international call is significantly more expensive than national calls. Subscribers use bypass fraud methods in order to avoid paying expensive international call fees set by a user’s fixed-line/mobile operator. By using bypass fraud methods, these subscribers make international calls and get them charged as if they were national calls.
How mobile network probes can assist in fighting bypass fraud
It is not by chance that many Fraud Management companies offer SS7/SIGTRAN Network Signaling Probes as part of their mobile network fraud prevention solution or product line; mobile network probes can assist in the protection of cellular networks from bypass fraud.
Mobile Network probes invisibly and passively monitor network connections. Modulo’s Signaling Probe can monitor both SS7 and Diameter messages executing over Ethernet. Probes can extract important network activity data such as comprehensive protocol traces, call statistics, CDRs, and more.
Some Network Probes, like The Modulo SPU, can be programmed to perform certain actions according to rules set by the user, such as copying filtered traffic to different applications on the network. When it comes to fraud detection, the SPU can be programmed to detect scenarios which are recognized as bypass frauds by fraud detection systems or mobile operators. Once a possible threat is detected, the probe can alert network administrators in order for them to investigate and take action to block incoming attacks.
Visit the Modulo Signaling Probe Unit product page for more information.