Who ever said hackers had to use computers, smartphones and credit/debit cards? Just ask the Foreman Seeley Foundation Architecture firm in Norcross, Georgia. How does a company run a $166,000 phone bill on a day nobody’s in the office?
This architect firm was a victim of an age old scam that’s come back with vengeance now that most corporate phone lines are so intertwined with the Internet.? Hackers broke into the firm’s phone network and routed $166,000 works of calls to telephone numbers in African nations like Gambia and Somalia. But this scam costs businesses nearly $5 billion a year; in 2011, this fraud was worth only a billion. Major carriers are already hip to this game; that’s why they can catch these hackers and turn the millions meant for the frauds back to the victims. But smaller business don’t have that luxury. Because of tight budgets, many of them use local carriers, which don’t offer these kinds of anti-fraud protection. And though lawmakers have been fighting to make anti-fraud protection available for all telephone companies, it has come to little avail.
Here’s what hackers do: They set up a premium 1-900 style numbers, usually overseas. Then they break into business systems like Foreman Seeley Foundation Architecture and make calls through it to premium number. And because of the Internet, they can make hundreds of calls at a time, thousands over the course over the weekend. Hackers get their cut through wire transfers. Personally, I think lawmakers need to stay on top of this issue to keep all businesses safe. Small businesses are the heart and soul of our economy, and we need to take necessary steps to protect them. So let’s help the smaller phone companies get the tools they need protect their smaller business clients, even if federal laws are needed to make that happen. What else can be done to protect us from phone hackers and their scams?