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The sixth edition of the annual report found that 92% of carriers consider fighting fraud to be a top priority – the highest on record
The ITW Global Leaders’ Forum (GLF), a leadership body of the international carrier industry, has published its sixth annual report on the status of fraud in the international telecoms industry. The research names BICS amongst the list of carriers compliant with the GLF Code of Conduct for combatting fraud traffic.
Key findings from this year’s report include:
- Fraud has become increasingly crucial at the organisational and managerial levels with 92% of carriers saying that fighting fraud was a “top” or “strategic” priority – the highest on record.
- Despite all the industry efforts in combating voice fraud over the past years, 75% of operators report that the volume and impact of fraudulent traffic has either increased or remained the same with 2022. This trend has primarily been driven by IRSF (International Revenue Sharing Fraud), CLI (caller ID) Spoofing, and call hijacking.
- The share of operators who have seen an increase in messaging fraud has almost doubled since 2022, 61% (2023) vs. 35% (2022). A steep increase in the volumes of Artificially Inflated Traffic, implementation of regulatory restrictions on voice and a lack of technological safety measures are some the key factors.
- 75% of carriers report additional regulatory scrutiny resulting from unwanted traffic and 72% report increased regulatory action. Carriers agree that stronger industry collaboration is vital to be able to decrease the levels of unwanted traffic.
- Only 50% of carriers report successful dispute resolution in less than 40% of cases, proving that more needs to be done on this front.
- As well as BICS, 22 other international carriers have been certified as compliant with the GLF Code of Conduct.
The GLF Code of Conduct is a compliance benchmark for carriers, establishing the principles that should be respected to improve collaboration and therefore effectiveness in fighting fraud. There is also a survey that aims to qualify how compliant the signatories are with regards to the principles in the code of conduct.
The Code was established in 2018 in partnership with the i3Forum. This gives BICS a unique link with the guidelines, as its Head of Fraud Security and Analytics, Katia Gonzalez, is chair of the i3Forum Fraud Fight. In addition to her amazing work combating international telecom fraud, Katia is also a huge advocate for gender diversity in the industry, having recently been named as part of Capacity’s network ambassadors.
“While it’s great to again be recognised by the GLF as compliant with its Code of Conduct, the rest of the findings of the report prove that much more work is needed to combat global telecoms fraud,” says Gonzalez. “The research also shows that combating fraud is a top priority for the vast majority of operators, but with very few seeing a decline in the volume and impact of fraud, we must continue to work together toward this common goal.”
“In our persistent fight against fraud, the ITW Global Leaders Forum recognises the need for collaborative efforts to combat the increasing challenges in voice and messaging fraud,” says Annabel Helm, Managing Director, GLF “While progress has been made, concerns persist about the misalignment of priorities such as compensation models and the impact of unwanted calls on consumers. We believe that by fostering industry-wide coordination and aligning our goals, we can positively impact the industry and rebuild trust.”
Details of the process and the results are included in the report available to download here.