The GSMA, a global organisation unifying the mobile ecosystem, has teamed up with XConnect, a provider of world-class numbering intelligence solutions, to crack down on International Revenue Share Fraud (IRSF).
GSMA IRSF Prevention will be leveraged in XConnect’s IRSFCheck solution to protect mobile network operators, Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) providers and enterprises from high-risk fraud destinations in real time.
IRSF is a telecommunications fraud where criminals exploit international revenue-sharing agreements between telecom operators to generate illicit income. Fraudsters artificially inflate call or SMS traffic to premium-rate international numbers, often collaborating with the owners of these numbers or telecom operators. They profit from the revenue-sharing mechanism tied to these high-cost destinations.
Impacting operators, businesses and consumers, IRSF costs its victims an estimated $4.73bn annually, according to the Communications Fraud Control Association, although much of it goes unnoticed and costs could be as high as $61bn globally.
GSMA IRSF Prevention forms a critical component of XConnect’s IRSFCheck, part of its RiskALERT product suite. Its customers benefit from a dedicated solution that is underpinned by XConnect’s award winning Global Number Range (GNR) data, combined with the GSMA’s IRSF Prevention data, to stop individual fraudsters before an attack takes place.
XConnect’s GNR data checks the number range, establishing whether numbers are valid and allocated to providers, and flags high-cost ranges. GSMA IRSF Prevention adds to this by immediately flagging reported revenue share fraud numbers and International Premium Rate numbers (IPRNs).
“Most IRSF is committed using unallocated number ranges and international premium rate numbers (IPRN). It is an escalating challenge for the telecoms industry and a significant threat to trust in communications,” says Fenton Bard, VP Global Sales at XConnect. “Together with the GMSA, we’re providing the industry with comprehensive and collaborative IRSF mitigation with the goal of restoring trust in telecoms. Our goal is to provide a quick and efficient way to easily identify high-risk numbers, improve margins and reduce damaging losses.”
The GSMA unites over 1,000 mobile operators and businesses across the ecosystem and related industries to advance innovation and reduce inequalities around the world. GSMA IRSF Protection gives operators, CPaaS providers and enterprises an over 90% detection rate on confirmed fraud cases. Its database is updated every 20 seconds using a unique scanning system and monitors all traffic.
“For more than a decade, International Revenue Share Fraud has been responsible for causing large financial losses for enterprises and communication service providers. Calls to International Premium Rate Numbers (IPRNs) are being hijacked on a regular basis and it’s getting harder to distinguish legitimate traffic. This has heightened the urgency for proactive fraud detection,” says Jason Smith, Senior Director, Industry Services, GSMA. “Every day, thousands of incidents are spotted in our global threat feed helping the mobile industry tackle fraud. Our partnership with XConnect is strengthening the telecom industry’s anti-fraud capabilities, ensuring that voice calls are only delivered to and from real users.”
