Telecom's US system ready to sniff out fraudulent callers

By RICHARD WOOD

Telecom has updated the technology it uses to catch fraudsters on its voice network, and expects to make substantial annual savings.

The US-sourced Agilent and Cerebos system put in three weeks ago will also monitor the traffic of subsidiary AAPT in Australia.

The system includes a neural technology module that can profile every caller individually and recognise anomalous behaviour - for example if a customer rang a foreign country on a Sunday when they had never done so before.

Telecom manager of fraud services Roger Fleming said the system would start to have an impact in about three weeks after it had built some knowledge of customers' behaviour. He would not disclose the cost of the system but said it should pay for itself in around five months, or even quicker if some big frauds were stymied.

Telecom's previous system was limited to considering usage rules and thresholds, and was "past its use-by date", said Fleming.

When a company or caller behaves unusually, as defined by 1500 criteria settings, a team of four investigators is notified immediately.

The new service is aimed towards the corporate end of the market, where the money is greater and PABX vulnerabilities can be exploited.

However it would also help protect individual customers from identity theft and subscription fraud, said Fleming.

A survey of 60 telcos by the US-based Communications Fraud Control Association found fraud was costing US$35 billion or more a year around the world.

Most of the fraud happening in New Zealand originates here.

Communications Fraud Control Association