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Interview with CBS: Basketball fans experience scam through text messages during March Madness craze

CBS Corpus Christi’s Victoria Balderrama reports on the dangers of NCAA March Madness. Balderrama turns to a fraud mitigation expert, Chris Drake, for tips on what to watch out for as the tournament progresses. The SVP of iconectiv warns views to never download a file from a text message sent by an unknown 10-digit number, as they can infect the device with malware. As a precaution, he suggests sports fans freeze their credit and back up their phone.
Mar 15, 2023
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Interview with FOX: Mobile Betting Scams: Sports betting expert shares ways to avoid scams ahead of March Madness

Fox Boston reports on the uptick in scams looking to cash in on the urgency surrounding March Madness betting. Chris Drake, SVP of iconectiv, shares his insight on the topic and warns viewers to be wary of 10-digit numbers, as they are easy to spoof. Other red flags to be on the lookout for include misspelled words, attachments/links or any request to be sent money via an untraceable method, such as cryptocurrency, gift cards or payment apps. Drake recommends that sports fans caught in a scam disengage and report the scam to the FTC or local police.
Mar 15, 2023
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Interview with FOX: March Madness scammers? How to keep yourself safe

FOX Cleveland’s Brad Hamilton seeks input from iconectiv SVP, George Cray, on how scammers are leveraging March Madness to steal personal information. Cray warns that Ohio is a hotspot for scams, as the state can now legally bet on the tournament. He suggests putting a freeze on your credit and reporting scams to the local police.
Mar 14, 2023
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Interview with FOX: March Madness brings the Final Four, and scammers, to Houston

Tom Zizka of FOX Houston warns viewers that March Madness is an opportunity for fraudsters to steal fans’ personal information. Scammers will use the NCAA tournament to craft texts around ticket sales or a betting opportunity in hopes to trick receivers into sharing personal information or clicking malicious links. George Cray, VP at iconectiv, offers insight as a telecom security expert and recommends never trusting these texts with sensitive information or clicking links. Zizka explains that another level of protection comes with messages from 5 or 6-digit numbers. Businesses have registered and undergone a vetting process to obtain these numbers, making them much more trustworthy.
Mar 14, 2023
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Interview with CBS: “They cleared my whole bank account,” Jax woman scammed, experts now warning others about spam texts

Megan Moriarty of CBS Jacksonville shares the story of how Tesa Childs was a victim of number porting fraud. The victim shared that her bank account was emptied, and the scammer had complete access to her phone. Moiarty turns to telecom expert, George Cray, VP of iconectiv, for insight on how viewers can protect themselves. Cray explains that you can never 100% trust a text from an unknow 10-digit number and that 5-6-digit short codes are more reliable.
Mar 8, 2023
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VanillaPlus Magazine Issue 1 2023: Are we nearly there yet?

In VanillaPlus Magazine, iconectiv shares an expert deep dive into origin-based rating. Over the past several years, network service providers have been feeling increased pressure to find new income streams to offset shrinking voice and data revenues, as well as margins. Origin-based rating is an untapped income opportunity that lies in how network service providers operate their business – specifically in relation to how they charge for terminating calls.
Feb 21, 2023
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Interview with FOX: Experts remind people to watch out for tax scams

Joshua Oculam of FOX Scranton cautions viewers of tax scams ramping up before April. iconectiv CTO, Chris Drake, provides expert insight on ways to keep viewers and their information safe. Drake explains that the IRS will contact Americans by notices in the mail, not by text or email. If a suspicious looking message is received, Drake warns to never click the link and to freeze your credit.
Feb 17, 2023

Press Releases

Media Contact:
Sharon Oddy
Head of Marketing and Corporate Communications
+1 732 699-5130
soddy@iconectiv.com

press release

Registered Caller Offers Companies Expanded Options to Take Advantage of STIR/SHAKEN for Verifying Caller Information

Today, the Secure Telephone Identity Governance Authority (STI-GA) announced a new era of STIR/SHAKEN functionality, expanding caller ID authentication reach with the use of delegate certificates and by allowing Resp Orgs to directly join the SHAKEN ecosystem. Registered Caller—the collaborative industry initiative facilitated by CTIA and iconectiv—will operationalize this process by providing a trusted, industry-backed, centralized telephone number registry that service providers and certification authorities can use to verify phone number information.
Oct 20, 2021
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With Communications-Related Fraud on the Rise, Analyst Report Examines Identity Theft and Consumer Protection in the US

Despite the numerous advantages and benefits that networks and digital devices bring, they inadvertently open up new avenues for fraud. A special report from Technology Research Institute entitled, “The 2021 State of Communications-Related Fraud, Identity Theft & Consumer Protection in the USA,” discusses the multi-layered blanket of security that provides timely—often real-time—protection from new, digital-enabled fraud threats, identity theft and account takeovers.
Oct 5, 2021
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The Challenges and Opportunities of SHAKEN Going Global

Translation of telecommunication services to foreign lands may take some time to progress and evolve into a maintained functional system. This is the case with SHAKEN as its state-of-the-art blocking of traffic from voice service providers not listed in the Robocall Mitigation Database may lead to numbers from different countries to be seen as robocalls. In this panel at the STIR/SHAKEN Summit, experts from ATIS, Fierce Wireless, iconectiv, Microsoft and Twilio discussed what service providers must do to prepare for the  FCC’s September 28 deadline.
Sep 21, 2021
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How to Detect and Protect Against One-Ring “Wangiri” Fraud

Creating an illegal $1.82 billion industry, “Wangiri” fraud, also known as one-ring scam, targets unassuming victims by intentionally hanging up after one ring in the hope people call back—charging them at a premium rate. As part of Conecta Latam’s Telco Transformation Digital Summit and Virtual Expo, iconectiv’s Juan Carlos Ortiz, Principal for Corporate Business Development, will explore how iconectiv’s TruNumber Protect helps enable telephone companies enhance their call-blocking analytics to identify and prevent illegitimate calls before they reach customers.
Sep 17, 2021
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A Successful Pilot: iconectiv, CTIA, Metaswitch and Verizon Address the Benefits of a Centralized Industry Registry for Verifying Voice Calls

Lack of caller verification is one of the largest problems that is causing individuals to not answer their phone. If they do not see who is calling them then they are less likely to pick up at all. With calls answered rates reaching the lowest it has ever been in a long time, it is to the upmost importance that proper authentication gets back into phone calls. Executives from CTIA, iconectiv, Metaswitch and Verizon covered a recent trial run of Registered Caller™ at the 2021 STIR/SHAKEN Summit and conversed about what it will offer to fix the declining answered rates.
Sep 8, 2021
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AT&T, CTIA and iconectiv Discuss Efforts to Mitigate robocalls in the U.S.

With the rise of unwanted robocalls, ignored or blocked legitimate calls have a negative impact on U.S. companies and consumers. To solve this challenge, iconectiv in partnership with CTIA created Registered Caller™—the industry-backed centralized registry for verifying voice calls. Registered Caller ensures that business entities and the telephone numbers they use get vetted, registered and verified, helping prevent legitimate calls from getting blocked or flagged as spam. In this Network Media Group panel, experts from AT&T, CTIA and iconectiv explore how this helps maintain the integrity of one of our most vital methods of communication—voice calls—by providing voice service providers with a single source of truth for verified caller information.
Aug 25, 2021
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iconectiv Recognized for Exceptional Robocall Mitigation Technology that Restores Trust Across Voice Communications

iconectiv’s TruReach Certify have been selected as a recipient of the 2021 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award by TMC. One of TMC’s most coveted awards, it honors the forward thinking that TruReach Certify brings to the telecommunications industry as the first deployment of a STIR/SHAKEN-based robocall mitigation solution. Through the implementation of TruReach Certify, consumers have confidence that the information displayed on their devices is legitimate, empowering them to make educated decisions when answering calls.
Aug 12, 2021