News

Union Street and Blizzard Tackle Fraud

Unified Comms
A ‘Fraud Limitation Cover” has been launched by Blizzard, a supplier of telecoms and utility services for the channel. By using Union Street’s aBILLity billing platform to manage the service, Blizzard claims it can offer a robust and cost effective solution for minimising financial losses that result from fraudulent activity.

Offered to end user customers for a monthly fee, the service insures against any losses of £100 or more that are incurred as a direct result of fraud. Terms and conditions apply. Launched in March 2015, the service has so far proved to be extremely popular. Blizzard reports that roughly 2,200 customers are currently covered by the policy, and that it has been welcomed by the vast majority of their 70 channel partners.

The service is made possible by Union Street’s ‘LineGuard’ fraud detection software, a module included as standard in its aBILLity platform. LineGuard automatically searches call data records (CDRs) as they are imported for unusual calling patterns and charge groups. If fraud is suspected, the customer & reseller are immediately alerted and asked to verify the situation or, if fraud is detected out of hours, LineGuard automatically places a temporary out of service on the line. For additional protection, Blizzard has configured aBILLity to set maximum spending thresholds for each customer account on all services including mobile and fixed line telephony.

Blizzard’s Managing Director, Mark Jones, comments, “When fraud occurs it’s often extremely damaging, both in monetary terms and to the customer relationship which inevitably sours as a direct result. Our Fraud Limitation Cover provides valuable peace of mind to consumers, and helps to preserve the customer relationship in the event of fraud. It also serves as a great value add for our resellers’ who have given us some very positive feedback on this initiative.

“aBILLity along with our out of hours coverage provides us with a comprehensive tool set for managing and catching fraud early, so we have complete confidence in using it to manage this service.”