Telecom Fraud Victim Files FCC Complaint

On September 4, 2014, the seven person architectural firm, Foreman Seeley Fountain Inc], or FSF,filed a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against its former telephone service provider, TW Telecom.

At the date of this post, TW Telecom is being acquired by Level3. The complaint arose from a fraud attack in March 2014.The FSF telephone system was hacked and fraudsters generated over 16,000 calls to Gambia running up a total bill of over $166,000.

The complaint alleges that TW Telecom aided and abetted the fraud by paying its international long distance provider for calls it knew were fraudulent.

If the FCC rules in favor of FSF, it will have a major impact on the transfer of interconnect fees between carriers for calls that are determined to be fraudulent.

FSF and other telecom consumers think a positive ruling is the logical first step to stopping traffic pumping fraud. However, some telephone service providers fear a positive ruling could make collection of interconnect settlement fees more difficult if there is not a clear standard that defines traffic pumping fraud.