I've got an X-Blue 45P system at an insurance agency and has Time Warner as the carrier.

Calls (supposedly) from around the country are hitting their 800 number and lasting 10 an 11 hours.

I've heard of outbound toll fraud but never inbound, got any ideas?

Thanks, Bracha

After hours or during business hours? Voice mail answering after hours or forwarded to answering service?

I've had hackers dial an 800 number to an oil field service company that was forwarded at night to an answering service. Answering service would answer and caller wouldn't say anything. Answering service hangsup and it would return dial tone from forwarding company that would allow the hackers to dial anywhere. Hackers would dial 10XXXXXX to spread the toll fraud around amongst carriers.

I posted on this topic a few months back. Can't find it now with this crazy search engine, but it ended up being a carrier mistake.

This one Dave?

Could be 45p is not giving a disco to CO.

Thanks, what makes it so crazy is that Time Warner is not billing them for an outbound call, just an inbound call that is answered by the voicemail, at night, not a live person.

If they were dialing an outside number, you would think Time Warner would be billing them for that.

I've been doing phones since 1984 and this is the first time I've seen inbound 800 toll calls where there is no outbound charge.

I suggested they forward all calls at night to the boss's cell phone, that would at least give the crooks a notice that something is up.

Thanks, Bracha

That's the one Bill...

I would think you'd want the voicemail system to timeout and disconnect after a certain amount of time... any idea how they're staying on that long? And more to the point, who benefits from this sort of fraud?

Well, Time Warner benefits for sure, they are billing for $36 and $40 calls when it goes to ten hours and such.

Never understood why anyone believed in Time Warner but its not my money.

Thanks, Bracha

Hi, I attended a CFCA conference and this very topic was discussed as it has been causing serious issues. The 800 number is simply being used as a place to land a call for free and to keep it connected for a long period without cost. The scam is known as traffic pumping and works like:

- the scammer obtains a IRS number. This number will pay them for every minute a call is connected to it, often used for radio station calls etc.
- the scammer then puts a divert on this IRS number to forward all calls to somewhere free eg a company's 800 number
- the scammer then uses a call generator to pump calls into their IRS number which are then forwarded to the 800 number, costing them nothing
- the scammer collects money for every minute each call is connected through his IRS number.

Time Warner are aware of this type of scam as they had people at the conference, but up to that point didn't know why this would happen until they attended this session.

I would suggest to the customer look at another carrier.