Azure address fraud issues next-generation services

July 17, 2005

Azure Solutions, the revenue-assurance company, announced the launch of its next-generation Azure Fraud Control System (AFCS) as part of its next-generation revenue-assurance portfolio roll-out. Revenue assurance is the reduction of losses and safeguarding of profits from both malicious and unintentional revenue leakage. Survey evidence suggests revenue leakage will become an even more complex issue for operators as they deploy next-generation mobile and IP-driven services, many of which are paid for via the networks themselves.

Azure has been helping operators prevent fraud over current networks for many years. In order to achieve a healthy, vibrant next-generation market, it is vital that carriers and software, content and equipment providers are confident that their efforts will not be hijacked by unscrupulous people looking to profit illegally from poorly protected services.

Examples of potential fraudulent activity tackled by AFCS include:

-- WiFi resale: where a single user sets up a wireless access point and resells access to the service;

-- VoIP by-pass: where fraudsters set up illegal origination or termination gateways to avoid international call costs or the VoIP costs of official providers;

-- partner repudiation: where a content provider will fraudulently increase the number of paid-for downloads by making the software cause problems that mean customers need to keep reordering content;

-- subscription fraud: where services, obtained through false identity, are used without payment.

AFCS takes into consideration current and future trends so that examples of fraud like these, and others that are yet to develop, can be tackled as they happen. AFCS detects activity on IP networks and is able to spot fingerprint' patterns that have been identified before as fraudulent and uses these to prevent fraud taking place and track down the offenders.

Jack Wraith, chief executive of TUFF (Telecommunications UK Fraud Forum), said: "Experience has shown that, whenever there is a technology step, the fraudster is quick to exploit the transition from one system to another.

TUFF will ensure that its members are kept abreast of the increased risk by engaging with companies such as Azure Solutions, to ensure that risks are minimised."

Pete Watts, head of fraud operations at Azure Solutions, said: "Telecoms fraud is nothing new and it will never entirely go away. Azure has been assisting telcos, worldwide to keep fraud to acceptable and manageable levels very successfully, but the introduction of next-generation networks and services will present telcos with new challenges. We have developed our fraud-control products to ensure that future services are both resilient and protected from fraudsters and thus provide all participants with the confidence that fraud will not be an issue that keeps them away from the exciting potential of the next-generation world."

The next-generation Azure Fraud Control System is the second part of Azure's next-generation revenue-assurance roll-out, following the launch of Azure Inter-Party Management in February 2005.