Wangiri fraud, or what we call as one ring scam, continues to haunt telecom operators even today. As per the CFCA 2019 fraud loss survey, Wangiri is one of the top 5 fraud methods with an estimated fraud loss of close to USD 1.82 billion globally. In addition to the revenue loss, Wangiri fraud adversely affects customer experience resulting in customer churn due to bill shocks. Telcos frequently update their fraud management systems with the latest hotlist/blacklists from the industry forums and other database vendors to overcome this fraud. Since these databases are not updated in real-time, telcos always end-up being on the receiving end until certain number ranges are tagged as fraud and blacklisted.
The need of the hour is that telco fraud management systems have access to real-time information on hotlists to address this fraud and avoid revenue losses. Subex recently partnered with the Risk & Assurance Group (RAG) to provide a blockchain-based fraud management solution to our customers. We are now a part of the RAG Wangiri Blockchain Consortium, which seeks to use Blockchain technology to gather real-time industry threat intelligence about fraudsters. The consortium includes some of the world’s leading Communications Service Providers (CSP) from North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.
By partnering with the RAG Wangiri Blockchain Consortium, we aim to provide our customers with a decentralized and cryptographically secure blockchain ledger of fraud-related information. The first use case the consortium focusses on is Wangiri fraud, which is a global and increasing problem for telcos and their customers.
Originally published at https://www.subex.com on May 18, 2020.
