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Rombus is a powerful tool for detecting and preventing IRSF and Wangiri Fraud. Whether you are a large telecom operator, a small VoIP service provider, a mega communications platform, or simply a business relying on phone numbers to authenticate customers, Rombus can help you with a reliable means to prevent fraud.
Book Demo →The contemporary fraudster is smart, organized, cool-headed, and discreet. They take their time to exploit your systems and deceive unsuspecting customers. And when they finally strike, the consequences are devastating. No telecom operator remains immune to these fraudsters' attempts to earn a living through deceit. Far too often, we have seen customers ripped off and businesses forced to shut down.
Traditional rule-based methods are inadequate when it comes to tackling IRSF fraud. These systems rely on identifying a specific threshold to flag suspicious calls. However, IRSF fraudsters cleverly exploit millions of innocent customers through tactics like missed calls, enticing messages with call-back links to premium rate numbers, short stopping legit calls, deploying malwares to make discreet calls, and call forwarding using exploited PABX systems to destinations with high payouts. Consequently, they manage to stay below the threshold limits of most fraud management tools, making these conventional methods ineffective in combating IRSF fraud.
Most fraudsters opt for International Revenue Share Fraud (IRSF) due to its ineffable simplicity. The availability of test numbers, coupled with quick and easy sign-ups, and guaranteed payouts, make IRSF an attractive choice. Consequently, it comes as no surprise that IRSF has ranked as the top fraud type reported by telecom operators for ten consecutive years.
This is precisely where a new solution is indispensable – a solution capable of tracing the essence, not just the form, of IRSF fraud modus-operandi, and promptly alerting you of an impending attack.
Smart, organised, discreet
Strike with lethal impact
Operate under the radar
Target vulnerble people
Make money effortlessly
If you are a Telecom operator, then most likely you have been hit already by IRSF and Wangiri Fraud. And if you believe you have been immune, perhaps you are not aware of the IRSF attacks. If you have not had success with your FMS, then its because FMS systems are not designed to detect and prevent IRSF Fraud.
IRSF calls are distributed or crowd sourced, so you wouldn’t see the same person dialling out calls to a particular destination in order for a rule to be triggered in your FMS. Neither can you rely on blocking calls to high-risk destinations, as international premium rate numbers are now spread over 200 countries. Besides, numbers called in IRSF incidents are usually not part of official national numbering plans, so the originating operator cannot easily identify the B-numbers as premium rate service numbers and add them in the fraud management system to generate alerts. So, you get the picture here.
The way we help you is to trace the way IRSF fraud is perpetrated. The fraudster who wants to make money out of pumping traffic to a premium rate number, usually makes certain test calls from devices in their possession to test whether the destination premium rate number is reachable. Once done, the sign up for premium rate numbers happen with an IPRN provider along with a fake content provider and the deluge of traffic to these numbers begin shortly thereafter. Therefore, by identifying the test numbers and the number ranges, you can start monitoring calls to both the destination and the number range. This will allow you to prevent an IRSF or Wangiri attack before great damage is done to your business and your customers.
Rombus collates these test numbers from over a thousand sources and adds them to the Rombus database in near real time. Used as B-NO hotlist in your FMS, this can now trigger useful Alarms about an ongoing or an impending attack on your network.
When it comes to fraud, the best thing to do is to prevent it. The next best thing you can do is to detect it. The worst thing you can do is nothing. Far too many businesses are exposed to lethal IRSF fraud due to indecision and inaction. Act now to protect your customers and your business with a proven solution.
Book Demo →Revolutionizing the IRSF fraud prevention process, Rombus IRSF utilizes automated number harvesting technology for real-time data acquisition. This allows obtaining premium rate numbers from thousands of data sources in real time.
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Rombus uses cutting edge AI technologies to gather insights into the techniques employed by fraudsters to protect you from financial losses and reputational damage. We do the heavy lifting so you can remain in peace.
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However, you have the flexibility to download the data at desired frequencies (e.g daily), ensuring you stay informed while maintaining control.
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Our data includes essential details such as IRSF test number, country, first seen and last seen dates, voice and SMS type, and payout information, providing a comprehensive overview of the risk associated with each IRSF number in our database.
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Accessing Rombus IRSF data is a breeze. Utilize our brand-new, secure Rombus portal without any code or integration requirements. Alternatively, automate downloads to your systems using our REST APIs, granting you seamless integration flexibility.
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Rombus provides a live report that visually highlight risky destinations, based on the IRSF numbers updated in real time, allowing you to analyse patterns and make informed decisions.
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Rombus retains IRSF numbers in our database without any purging, allowing for number searches and comprehensive analytics and risk scores (coming soon).
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Enhance your defense with our lightweight alarms feature. Run your CDR data through the Rombus engine to identify potential attacks, all within your control. Choose between on-prem or your own AWS cloud option for maximum security and data compliance.
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Designed to integrate effortlessly with existing fraud management systems and telecom networks, Rombus is adaptable to any environment. Whether you need an enterprise-wide solution or a standalone deployment, we cater to your specific requirements.
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Connect – Connect with us so we can demonstrate how Rombus can help protect your business from IRSF fraud.
Account – Upon exchanging agreements, an account for your organization will be created to get started.
Protect – Login to the Rombus portal or use the APIs to download the data to stop IRSF attacks instantly.
IRSF stands for International Revenue Share Fraud, which involves fraudsters exploiting premium rate numbers to generate illicit revenue while causing financial losses to legitimate businesses. IRSF is also frequently referred to as Toll Fraud. You can read more about IRSF and Wangiri fraud here.
Yes indeed. The GSMA provides a comprehensive definition for IRSF fraud: “International Revenue Share Fraud is a form of fraud whereby the perpetrator artificially inflates traffic by generating calls to certain portions of international number ranges with no intention to pay for the calls (or paying where there exists some form of arbitrage opportunity), or by stimulating calls by others to the number ranges. The fraudster receives a share of the revenue from termination charges obtained by the number range holder for inbound traffic to the number ranges.”
According to the CFCA Global Fraud Loss surveys, IRSF has been the top fraud threat for operators across the world for ten straight years. Strong risk controls can prevent a lot of fraud from happening. However, detecting and preventing IRSF fraud requires a different kind of approach as numbers as IRSF often involves multiple parties such a fraudulent telecom operator, number range owner, and several fraudsters driving traffic to regular or unallocated numbers in collaboration with a premium rate service provider. It requires the ability to predict when an IRSF attack is imminent even when no threshold rule is exceeded for seemingly legitimate international numbers.
Fraudsters employ several tactics to inflate traffic which is at the heart of an IRSF attack. Obtaining SIM cards through illegal means, hijacking SIM cards from unsuspecting customers, utilizing SIM cards from stolen phones, acquiring SIMs via Subscription Fraud, hacking into PBX systems, hijacking number ranges, short stopping legitimate calls, and deploying malware to facilitate automated calls to premium rate numbers, to name just a few of the tricks. Once they have the devices in their possession, these fraudsters often target International Revenue Share (IRS) destinations with high payouts. This is typically done in collaboration with IPRN providers and content providers, aiming for lucrative payouts by generating substantial call traffic in short periods of time.
Having worked with a number of operators, big and small, it appears that no one is immune to IRSF and Wangiri attacks. This fact is also supported by the IRSF destinations, which span over 220 countries. That is virtually every nation on this planet. Rules based systems cannot cope with this behaviour. Even if one number is blocked there are thousands of numbers and destinations to choose from by the fraudsters. The cross-border nature of IRSF also makes it difficult for law enforcement agencies to track down the perpetrators. For instance, the head spinning IRSF cycle from SIMs being acquired by Mr. X, a national of country A, shipping SIMs to Mr. Y, a national of Country B, living in Country C and making calls to Country D with the calls re-routed to an IRS or PRS number based in country E, owned by a company with registration in Country F and money channelled through multiple bank accounts makes it an impossible task for the law enforcement team. This is why there is a need for preventing IRSF in the first place to safeguard your business and prevent your operating team inundated with arbitration.
Unlike Premium Rate Fraud, IRSF is a lot more difficult to detect as the numbers in IRSF are generally not part of the official national numbering plans so the originating operator cannot easily identify the called numbers as premium rate services and hence difficult to add them to monitoring hotlists. This is why a different approach is needed to solve IRSF fraud. If you would like to learn the difference between PRS and IRSF, please read more here.
Many operators are still blocking calls to certain high-risk destinations. However, in our experience, we see that many unallocated number ranges (which are allocated subsequently to genuine customers) are also used frequently in international revenue share fraud. This type of blocking can cause widespread service disruption and lead to a significant increase in customer complaints. Besides, with the daily addition of new numbers and number ranges, it is impossible to block numbers with a broad brushstroke.
Rombus collates high risk test numbers from global IPRN providers and offers an easy-to-use number intelligence database with an alerting engine. Used as a called number hotlist in your fraud management system or the in-built Rombus alarms module, businesses can detect and mitigate potential fraud attempts before great damage is done.
If you are a large e-commerce company or offering 2FA services (2 Factor Authentication whereby customers are authenticated using an SMS or voice passcode), then it is critical to protect your business from premium rate fraud. At the point of 2FA signup, fraudsters usually provide premium rate numbers instead of genuine numbers thereby adding to your operating cost – your SMS and calls will end up at a premium rate destination costing you more than the usual SMS or voice transaction – without the signup being completed. As you will have to pay for these services to the underlying telecom operator, it is best to do a check to see if the numbers provided for 2FA signups are legit before triggering the codes via SMS or Voice.
You can access Rombus data through our secure web portal, which requires no coding or integration. Alternatively, you can automate downloads to your systems using our REST APIs, ensuring seamless integration with your existing infrastructure. The database is a simple CSV file that you can load or integrate into any system of your choice.
The easiest way to integrate the Rombus dataset into your system is to download the dataset from the Rombus portal (downloaded as a CSV – Comma Separated – File. Upload the file to your FMS table that hotlists called numbers (B-Nos). Trigger an alert in your FMS every time the test numbers are called and add a rule to monitor subsequent calls to the destination or number range. Another way to integrate is to use our APIs to download the numbers directly into your FMS without the need for any manual interventions. Either way, we are here to help you achieve the desired goal.
Rombus data is updated in near real-time, 24/7/365. However, clients have the flexibility to download data daily (new updates), or the full data (available for a quarter). We will add more flexibility to the downloads in our future releases.
Rombus provides a wealth of data, including the test number, destination, dates of discovery and updates, voice or sms types, and payout details. This comprehensive information helps assess the level of risk associated with each number.
Rombus uses cutting edge AI technologies to uncover risky numbers used by fraudsters. This unique feature ensures a more comprehensive understanding of the IRSF landscape and how it can be tackled through number intelligence. Besides, there is a great deal of number standardization and verifications done before it’s made available for you so you can simply upload it to your system and start using it straight away.
Usually, you will download the entire database and upload it to your Fraud Management System or any Called Number monitoring system to monitor calls that match the Rombus numbers. A match usually indicates that a potential fraudster is testing the services to see if the desired outcome is achieved through your network or device. This could just be a confirmation for the fraudster that the call is reaching the intended destination or that the call is diverted to the desired IRPN destination rather than the original called destination and so forth. Once a test call to Rombus is detected, you should start monitoring calls to the same number range or destination or calls from the affected device to ensure no great damage is done to your business.
Yes, Rombus comes with an alerting feature that enhances protection. This is mostly suitable for small service providers who do not want to invest in large FMS systems but require basic alerting and dashboard functions. By running your CDR (Call Detail Record) data through the Rombus engine, you can identify potential attacks. You have the option to deploy this feature on-premises or on your own cloud infrastructure for total data control. The Rombus portal can be used for analysing the alerts and taking necessary actions in your systems.
Yes! Rombus will archive numbers to facilitate future searches and analytics, providing valuable insights for researchers and law enforcement agencies. As we are just getting started with Rombus, a future announcement will be made on the archived data and how it can be used for research and law enforcement purposes.
Absolutely! Rombus is designed for seamless integration with existing fraud management systems and telecom networks. Whether you require an enterprise-wide solution or a standalone deployment, Rombus can easily be implemented and tailored to meet your specific requirements.
Our goal is to support ‘all’ operators and businesses and their customers who are at risk of being scammed by IRSF and Wangiri fraud. Therefore, we have set affordable and fair prices that we believe can benefit the entire telecom fraternity. Please get in touch with us so we can share the pricing models and a no obligation quote for your consideration.
Getting started with Rombus is easy! Contact our dedicated team to discuss your specific IRSF and Wangiri fraud prevention needs. Once we have a quick conversation, we will share a proposal that can be electronically signed. Once the payment (for retail licenses) or PO (for Group or OEM licenses) is released, you will have immediate access to the Rombus database.
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