Dial Through Fraudsters Using VoIP To Cover Tracks

Interesting piece in the Guardian today about a tool company in Manchester whose VoIP pbx got hacked in February:-

Quote:

At around 6.30 on a Friday evening in February the phones in the head office of Manchester-based tool distribution company, Joseph Gleave & Son, started to give an occasional ping. The company was under a sustained and well-orchestrated attack from fraudsters who were hacking into its phone system. Over the weekend they ran up a bill of £2,100 in illegal overseas calls to 19 countries - including Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Ecuador, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Pakistan, Sudan, Serbia and the Republic of Yemen. The biggest single item was £71 on one call to Afghanistan, where local call termination charges are among the highest in the world.

http://technology.guardian.co.uk:80/wee ... 92,00.html

Some years ago I had a handset stolen, and within hours it was clocking up calls to Karachi. I know this is less likely now, since products exist to monitor user behaviour and create alerts for the mobile operators.

I don't know for sure, but I imagine this is why the sim-box, pbx hijack makes sense: if you steal mobiles and try to make lots of international calls, then mostly the mobile accounts shut down pretty quickly. However, if you know an unsecured pbx, then this allows endless hours of international calling. The mobiles are simply a tool to distance you from the crime.