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Managing Director @ RPS Telecom
Telecoms fraud is no longer something happening at the edges of the network. It is becoming a coordinated, multi-channel risk affecting organisations of every size.
After attending the Comms Council UK Fraud Summit in London, one message was clear: expectations of communications providers are changing. Providers are increasingly expected not just to carry traffic, but to understand it and act when something does not look right.
From my perspective as Managing Director of RPS Telecom, this reflects a wider shift across the industry. Protecting network integrity is no longer optional. It is becoming part of the role of a responsible provider.
One of the areas I found particularly instructive was the scale and structure of the Industry Traceback Group (ITG) in the United States.
The ITG coordinates investigations into illegal robocalling and caller ID spoofing by tracing suspicious call traffic back through the telecoms supply chain to its origin. Providers are expected to cooperate quickly and intervene where misuse is identified.
The group now carries out over 1,000 tracebacks every month. Around 80% trace back to Communications Providers, and 60% are considered actionable.
This reflects a clear shift in expectations. Providers are no longer viewed as passive carriers of traffic. There is increasing expectation that anomalies are recognised earlier and escalated where appropriate.
The ITG model demonstrates what coordinated enforcement across networks can look like in practice, and it is likely to influence how similar approaches develop in the UK.
Alongside developments in the United States, the UK Government’s Fraud Strategy makes it clear that telecoms providers are expected to take a more active role in preventing fraud across the communications ecosystem.
This includes stronger expectations around:
Fraud prevention is no longer something that sits solely with regulators after an incident has occurred. Providers are increasingly expected to recognise anomalies earlier and act on them.
Communications providers can often see patterns emerging before they become visible elsewhere. That visibility creates responsibility.
Another consistent theme from the summit was that fraud is rarely isolated.
Once contact details or trust relationships are exposed, organisations are often targeted from multiple directions at once, including spoofed phone calls, phishing emails, SMS impersonation and supplier identity cloning.
Stopping fraud therefore depends on recognising patterns early rather than responding after damage has already occurred.
As one speaker put it:
Always carry a canary.
Every organisation needs an early warning signal that something is not right.
A particularly striking insight discussed at the summit was the scale of unused UK numbering.
There are more than 10 billion +44 numbers available, yet only around 8% are actively in use.
Restricting unused numbers from presenting outbound caller ID would significantly reduce spoofing opportunities and help protect both businesses and consumers from impersonation attacks.
This is an example of how technical policy decisions can directly influence fraud prevention outcomes.
Fraud prevention depends on recognising unusual behaviour and acting on it.
At RPS Telecom, we identified a pattern of enquiries that did not sit comfortably with us and escalated that intelligence through the appropriate channels. That work contributed to enforcement action taken against multiple call centres linked to criminal activity.
It is not the visible part of what we do, but it is one of the most important.
Most providers sell telephony.
We actively protect it.
One of the strongest messages from the summit was that fraud prevention is now a shared responsibility across the telecoms supply chain.
Businesses should expect their communications provider to monitor anomalies, escalate suspicious activity and cooperate with enforcement bodies where necessary.
Not every provider does this.
Aligning yourself with suppliers who actively engage with fraud prevention, rather than assuming it is someone else’s responsibility materially reduces organisational risk.
Telecoms providers sit in a unique position within the communications ecosystem. We often see patterns emerging before they become visible elsewhere. That visibility creates responsibility.
At RPS Telecom, supporting network integrity means paying attention to anomalies, asking questions when something does not look right, and escalating concerns through the appropriate channels when necessary. It is not something customers always see, but it is an important part of how we operate.
If you would like to better understand how your organisation could be exposed to telecoms fraud risk or whether your current provider is taking an active approach to protecting network integrity, we would be happy to have that conversation.
Because in today’s landscape, telephony alone is no longer enough.
RPS Telecom
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