Business customers need to be better informed of the precautions necessary against telephone fraud, says Paul Anslow, MD of South West-based communications provider Triangle.

Hosting a session at the AGM of the Federation of Communication Services (FCS), Paul made a number of best practice recommendations for telecoms resellers and service providers.

Telephone fraud has increased significantly in the UK recently, and can prove costly for businesses targeted by fraudsters.

“Work has been carried out to address standards in Voice over IP, but landline services are less easy to control, as real time line monitoring is not available,” said Paul. “Call logging and similar hardware solutions do help, but they can be costly.”

As a landline and VoIP provider, Triangle has been able to offer some useful insights into the differences between VoIP and landlines, and how to have a joined up approach to this issue. Triangle’s specially designed combined landline and VoIP solution was created with these issues in mind.

“What we really need to do is make sure customers are well informed and know what they can do to protect themselves, but also make sure that the financial impact is limited as much as possible,” added Paul.

“As part of the best practice criteria, we have included a promise to all customers not to profit from fraudulent calls,” he said. “Disappointingly this value is not a policy that all providers recognise.”

The session was the brainchild of FCS CEO Chris Pateman and Cathy Gerosa Head of Regulatory Affairs, but indicative of the great work carried out by the team at the FCS.

If you would like to know more about the steps that can be taken against telephone fraud, contact us on 01275 871122.

Special thanks to Chris Renton for the photography.