It has come to our attention of another potential phone scam that is covering New Zealand at the moment called 'Call-Forwarding Fraud'. Click on this link to see further information provided by the Vodafone website.
Here's an extract from the website:
Call forwarding fraud on your business landline can affect anyone, on any network and can lead to unexpected bills. Make sure your business is protected.
Over the past few months there has been an increase in call forwarding fraud throughout Australasia. This type of fraud targets weak spots in a customer’s PABX or voicemail system, and can lead to customers being billed for services they didn’t use.
By hacking into voicemail, offenders can set up call forwarding to make a large number of international calls to high cost destinations. In extreme cases, targeted businesses have incurred charges up to $300,000 with calls made to destinations such as such as Gambia, Sierra Leone and Latvia.
Who's At Risk
Any voicemail service that is secured by a PIN can be a target, including voicemail provided by physical and hosted PABX systems. So it’s important for you to make sure your account is safe and secure.
Hackers typically target businesses during weekends and holiday periods in an attempt to avoid detection.
It is a relatively simple scam that can end up costing centres several thousands of dollars. TSA has had one centre hit so far for several thousand dollars and iSG are keen to put the warning out to the everyone.
Centres that don't have any kind of phone system eg. just one phone, have nothing to worry about with this scam.
However, if you have a phone system, please make sure your voicemail passwords are secure and if you notice random activity like phone lines in use where they shouldn't be, please check who could be using this within the centre, and if no one, then contact iSG.
