Do you expect much Fraud?

[usa2k]

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20245206-

They talk here like 40% is normal?

[VOIPoTim]

There is definitely a decent amount...

There are a lot of little things that make a big difference. As an example, BYOD options contribute to this significantly especially when coupled with instant activation.

For our residential service, we will not be offering a BYOD option like I've alluded to in the past. Provisioned hardware or softphone only. I've went into some of the reasons in the past like support/training and delivering a consistent service, but fraud is a major part of it too.

Beyond being able to more easily abuse "unlimited" plans, BYOD typically eliminates the extra processing/shipping time which a normal order would have because the credentials are provided either immediately or within a day or so. While a lot of transactions can be flagged immediately, fraudsters don't like waiting around to see if it sticks and don't like getting anything physical shipped to them because typically if the billing/shipping addresses are different, questions will be asked and if they have the ATA shipped to the "real" address of the card holder, the cardholder would notice and potentially call to ask about their new found account.

BTW, don't worry. We'll "grandfather" everyone in the BETA in if they want to continue to use alternate devices. Policies will always change from time to time, but it's always good to keep those changes targeted towards new customers when possible.

This is just one example. Our new billing system uses a score based system for orders that looks at billing address, IP location in reference to billing address, phone number NPA/NXX to billing address, etc and assigned a "score" to the order. If it's above a certain threshold, it's flagged to review before the charge is even processed. In those cases, we'll be calling the cardholder to verify.

So yes overall there will be a lot of fraud, but there are little things that can reduce it. For what it's worth, I'd say we get 100+ fraud orders a day at HostGator.

[usa2k]

Maybe soft phone credentials after 3 months paid for Residential?

[gbh2o]

Our new billing system uses a score based system for orders that looks at billing address, IP location in reference to billing address, phone number NPA/NXX to billing address, etc and assigned a "score" to the order. If it's above a certain threshold, it's flagged to review before the charge is even processed. In those cases, we'll be calling the cardholder to verify..

I'd probably ring a lot of bells :-) But, I'd enjoy the conversation!

You definitely have to be aggressive with identity and address verification to prevent fraud

[fisamo]

For our residential service, we will not be offering a BYOD option like I've alluded to in the past. Provisioned hardware or softphone only.

... snip ...

BTW, don't worry. We'll "grandfather" everyone in the BETA in if they want to continue to use alternate devices. Policies will always change from time to time, but it's always good to keep those changes targeted towards new customers when possible.

Phew! Glad to know I'll be able to keep my * system on the Residential line. I see no reason it won't work with Express, as you'd forward to a SIP address (or other number) that's independently managed. Also, without having the outbound minutes on the Express platform, there's much less fraud/abuse potential.

This is just one example. Our new billing system uses a score based system for orders that looks at billing address, IP location in reference to billing address, phone number NPA/NXX to billing address, etc and assigned a "score" to the order. If it's above a certain threshold, it's flagged to review before the charge is even processed. In those cases, we'll be calling the cardholder to verify.

Out of curiosity... Will new customer signup have real-time DID inventory? If so, once a customer completes the process, is the number they selected removed from inventory, pending account setup (and, if a 'bad' score, order confirmation)? As a new customer, I'd be peeved if I had selected a desirable DID, and it was 'stolen' from me by someone else signing up who either happened to have a 'better' fraud score, or had their account confirmed (for whatever other reason) before mine.

[gbh2o]

Phew! Glad to know I'll be able to keep my * system on the Residential line. I see no reason it won't work with Express, as you'd forward to a SIP address (or other number) that's independently managed. Also, without having the outbound minutes on the Express platform, there's much less fraud/abuse potential.

Express works quite well with * systems! :-) Or, for anywhere else you might like to point a DID. Probably the most significant anti-fraud measure associated with Express is that the DIDs only have 500 minutes inbound included (100 min toll-free) before going to the per-minute charges. So they are only attractive to those with a low use expectation (typical home use).

[fisamo]

Agreed. I was a bit off in my wording, there--I meant to confirm that Express works well with Asterisk, as I've had it set up that way with no problems.

[VOIPoTim]

Out of curiosity... Will new customer signup have real-time DID inventory? If so, once a customer completes the process, is the number they selected removed from inventory, pending account setup (and, if a 'bad' score, order confirmation)? As a new customer, I'd be peeved if I had selected a desirable DID, and it was 'stolen' from me by someone else signing up who either happened to have a 'better' fraud score, or had their account confirmed (for whatever other reason) before mine.

If a new customer orders a number, it's removed from the available pool immediately, but can be added back with a click on our end if need be.

[Montano]

Thank goodness for 'grandfathers' I'm a BYOD type of guy !!

[burris]

Thank goodness for 'grandfathers' I'm a BYOD type of guy !!

The topic is 'Fraud'...not 'Freud'