Telecom Fraud Prevention - The AB Handshake journey

Wangiri, CLI Spoofing, Short Stopping - clever telecom fraud schemes that go by such dubious names threaten telecom companies and their clients each day.

These range from mere annoyances to highly dangerous scams that can hurt a telecom company's profits, reputation and brand loyalty.

For example, a client's call gets hijacked mid-route and pumped to an expensive destination country.

Or, your business receives dozens of phone numbers via an online contact form submitted by bots. Your customer service team then calls these premium numbers priced at exorbitant rates.

These annoyances damage brand loyalty, drain finances and cut into a business's bottom line.

Naturally, telecom companies have been paying for telecom fraud detection techniques for decades.

However, while telecom fraud prevention services have been able to stop MOST fraud attacks, none of them have been able to stop ALL fraud attacks.

This has been the state of telecom fraud prevention to this day.

A False Horizon for Telecom Fraud Prevention

Recently, fraud detection in telecommunication hit a new milestone when the FCC made it compulsory for U.S. operators to implement STIR/SHAKEN by June 30th - a protocol that helps identify the source of fraudulent calls. 

Having the FCC in the fight to stop telecommunications fraud is reassuring. 

Yet, businesses still can't confidently identify which are robocalls, and which aren't. And STIR/SHAKEN only addresses two telecom fraud schemes - call-spoofing and robocalls. 

Call Stretching, PBX Hacking, Interconnect Bypass, Robocalls and many other telecom fraud schemes still outsmart the decades old protocols, putting businesses and their reputations at risk each day. 

So, many telecom companies ask, "What is the best telecom fraud prevention tool?". 

Thanks to AB Handshake's game-changing approach to detecting and blocking voice fraud, today is a new day for fraud prevention in telecommunications. 

With our technology, it's now possible to prevent all voice fraud attacks and be done with this problem, once and for all.

Telecom Fraud Prevention - How Does AB Handshake Work?

Now that you understand how we got here, you may be curious about the most important part - how to prevent telecom fraud.

AB Handshake is a game-changing solution for call validation.

Traditional anti-fraud systems are based on behavior analysis and post-attack-reaction, which can still be bypassed by many fraud schemes, leading to losses for companies.

AB Handshake has taken an unprecedented approach to addressing the issue of telecom fraud that doesn't allow fraudsters to attack, at all.

The solution is based on cooperation between operators.

As a result, it not only mitigates telecom fraud, but completely eliminates fraud between all operators that use the AB Handshake solution.

Here's how it works (see image below): Each time an inbound or outbound call is initiated, its details are sent to a call registry where a series of hi-tech processes take place to prevent telecom fraud and ensure the security of the call:

1. Once a call is initiated, the call registry uses the E.164 numbering plan to route a validation request, which reaches the terminating network before the actual call does.
2. Next, the call then undergoes cross-validation from two networks to detect even minute forms of manipulation.

This means your clients can rest assured that both their inbound and outbound traffic will be free from robocalls, hacking, spoofing, call stretching or any other telecom fraud scheme.

You can also rest assured that your business and its reputation are fully protected, once and for all.

Furthermore, integration is seamless and doesn't disrupt the current state, functionality or parameters of a business's current network and its operation.

The AB Handshake network of operators is a fully secure, self-empowering and growing community with the goal of establishing a global fraud-free community of telecom operators.

AB Handshake's innovative approach is echoed in the findings from the ITU CxO meeting 2023, as detailed in their subsequent communiqué. This gathering highlighted the urgent need for a shift towards real-time, cooperative validation methods in combating telecom fraud. The consensus was clear: traditional, isolated solutions are no longer sufficient.

Take a look for yourself at the ITU committee's strategy for a safer telecom future.

If you'd like to learn more about AB Handshake and how to prevent telecom fraud you can read more about the technology here.

We are now actively onboarding service providers worldwide and the system already has live traffic to any country in the world.

If you're interested in protecting your business from voice fraud, once and for all, feel free to contact us here to get started today.