International mobile telecom frauds
Introduction to Mobile Telecommunication
Mobile telecommunication (mobile telecom) is a medium of communication using mobile telephony, which is the telephone service that is provisioned through mobile telephone devices. There are some key entities that are involved in the mobile telecommunication industry are:
- Operators: Those who provide mobile telephone services
- Manufacturers: Those who manufacture mobile phones and other related infrastructure.
- Subscribers/Consumers: Those who purchase mobile phone connection from an operator
- Regulators: Those who implement regulations to maintain a healthy ecosystem within the mobile telecommunication industry
- Service Providers: Those provide numerous services to complement operators such as threat protection.
- Fraudsters: Those who want to gain profits using mobile telecom through illegal means
Mobile telecom is an ever-growing, highly lucrative industry. At its inception, mobile telecom was solely used for local voice-based calls as well as International Direct Dialing (IDD) calls, which were comparatively charged at a higher rate than the local calls. With the introduction of the Short Message System (SMS) in the mid-’90s which gained worldwide popularity, however, the mobile telecom operators received a new revenue stream. GSMA, through their The Mobile Economy 2019 predicts that there will be some 700 million new mobile subscribers by 2025 globally. As much as this is a great prediction for the operators, so it is for the fraudsters.