MVNOs are frequently targeted by fraudulent activities.

One Friday, we noticed that revenue for one of our MVNO clients spiked by 25%. Initially, this didn’t raise major concerns since the client is an ethnic MVNO, where such increases can occur due to significant events in their home country, driving more calls and revenue.

However, when the revenue continued to surge over the weekend, our team grew suspicious. We dug deeper and discovered that the extra revenue was being driven by calls to a single premium number in the UK, made by new subscribers who were topping up large amounts (€100-€200) via the same online channel. It quickly became clear that this was a fraud scheme.

Thanks to our reporting solutions and the team’s proactive approach, we immediately advised the MVNO to suspend the top-up channel. It turned out that the credit card processor was compromised, allowing stolen credit cards to be used for topping up SIM cards and making calls to the premium number, where the fraudsters could cash out. Over the weekend, around €30,000 was transacted this way. While there was no direct financial loss to our client, as the credit card processor bore the responsibility, we’re proud that our solution and expertise helped detect and stop this fraudulent activity quickly, preventing any significant impact.