Re: Sri Lanka to cut phone links to 13 countries to stop scams

[aborg () mca org mt]

Richard, Nick,

Quite right.  Unfortunately, the situation locally involves a monopolistic
fixed-line operator who therefore is in a different position than yours.  I
(personally) agree with Richard that this is basically fraud that is
perpetuated by the telco itself ... and yes Nik, having someone call you
and point this out to you would be a lovely idea ... but it just isn't that
simple when
   There is a monopoly
   The consumers who do get affected do not write to newspapers or
   publicise their claim
   The only consumers association is government owned (which also owns the
   telco) and underfunded and understaffed

Sigh ...

Antoine Borg
Network & IS Administrator

Malta Communications Authority
Suite 43/44, "Il-Piazzetta"
Tower Road
Sliema SLM 16
Malta G.C.

Tel: +356 21 336840
Fax: +356 21 336846
----------
"Of all manifestations of power, that which most impresses men is
restraint" Thucydides

funsec-bounces () linuxbox org wrote on 31/10/2005 11:37:28:

> On Mon, 31 Oct 2005 09:43:32 +0100
> aborg () mca org mt wrote:

> > I work for a regulatory authority and we've had numerous debates as to
> > who should be liable for this problem. On the one hand, there's the
> > consumer with a huge bill that he is unable/unwilling to pay (rightly
> > so). On the other hand there is the telco with the "any calls you make
> > you have to pay for" clause in their user agreement.  Both are
> > unwilling to pay but IMHO, the telcos don't do enough to help prevent
> > this problem.

> It's worse than that - the reason this scam works at all is based on
> deliberate misrouting by international Telcos, and all gateway networks
> have to be "in" on the deal to one extent or another.  It is deliberate
> fraud in that the Telco is charging for calls to country X while routing
> them to country Y with the scammer (and the related consolidators etc)
> collecting the difference between the rates.  Some national authorities
> have taken action in these cases, and required refunds to be made on a
> class basis: Canada comes most significantly to mind but I believe the
> USA may have done the same.

> Having worked as Regulatory office for a Telco, I'm well aware of the
> SS7 mechanism that the scam uses, and the inter-Telco discussions!

> --
> Richard
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