About BWI Group
BWI Group is a premier chassis supplier that designs and manufactures brake and suspension systems for the global transportation market.The group has multiple global sites located in China, Japan, USA, and the UK.
The BWI Group team has deep experience in the design and manufacture of suspension and brake parts for customers around the world. Committed staff, technical centres, manufacturing plants and intellectual property have all enabled BWI Group to bring to market a legacy of producing brake and suspension components, modules and systems for more than eight decades.
Background
Fraudulent attacks costing thousands
For any organisation, an above average telephone bill would be a surprise and even a cause for concern, especially where many calls are international fraud. For most, even where the cost of calls has been incurred through fraudsters, it is a cost they have to bear.
Over the course of an evening when no-one was on site, BWI UK Ltd (BWI) fell victim to a series of fraudulent attacks on their telephone system. At this time, hackers dialled in remotely and generated a telephone bill of over £5,500, with calls to obscure locations.
VoiceSafe protected BWI against fraud and associated costs
BWI were fortunate in that they had signed up for VoiceSafe, a service offered by Southern Communications. This meant they were protected against the cost of the fraudulent calls.
Southern Communications had identified and highlighted a change in calling patterns from BWI and temporarily blocked further calls of this nature, preventing further charges being incurred.
Once it was confirmed these calls were not made by the staff and were fraudulent, BWI was grateful for their investment in Voicesafe, without which they would have been responsible for the cost of these calls. Due to the attack happening overnight, it was the early detection by Southern Communications that enabled the fraud to be stopped and no further charges incurred.
BWI received compensation
Without VoiceSafe, the cost of fraud can be so excessive that it can force businesses to close down. Southern Communications VoiceSafe Commitment is to protect the system and network and, if the fraudsters still access the system, they will pay up to £10,000 in compensation. In this case, the attack was picked up and stopped but not before over £5,000.00 worth of calls were racked up.
Honouring the VoiceSafe commitment those costs have been covered by Southern Communications for BWI.
The problem of PBX fraud
Although Telephone Fraud costs organisations millions of pounds every year, very little is known about it by those vulnerable to attack. Criminals are becoming increasingly advanced in their methods often striking at weekends and out of hours, when business premises are empty, hacking into the telephone systems of unsuspecting organisations and making large numbers of calls to expensive call destinations.
The Southern Communications Solution
Organisations constantly undervalue the importance of using a reputable company that will take the necessary steps to help prevent them becoming a victim of telephone fraud when installing and maintaining a telephone system and choosing a provider for network-based Calls & Lines.
Statement from BWI Group:
“We are constantly made aware of online fraud yet so little is known about telephone fraud”, commented BWI. “As a result of this we have a much better understanding of potential damage telephone fraud can cause a business. We are nothing but grateful to Southern Communications for their support, and that of VoiceSafe, and would like to help other businesses realise how vulnerable they are.
Southern Communications and VoiceSafe provided assistance to us from the moment that we learnt of the fraud (the morning after) to the moment that we received our money back, having had to inform the police, through VoiceSafe. We would not hesitate in recommending their service.”
– Jonathon Wiles, Purchasing Manager, BWI UK Ltd
What is VoiceSafe?
Southern Communications VoiceSafe is a proactive service, designed to protect customers’ telephone systems and telephony network from fraud. We actively look to bar out of hours calls to specific vulnerable locations and lock our customers’ systems down. This is achieved easily where we maintain the system and where this is not the case, we look at external telephony protection using a variety of methods we have developed over a number of years.
We are so confident in our ability to protect our customers that if fraud still happens, as in the case of BWI, we will pay up to £10,000.00 of compensation as a credit, against calls made through fraudulent activity, on a VoiceSafe protected system.
What are the benefits?
VoiceSafe is a revolutionary product available exclusively from Southern Communications. We use our vast experience to protect your organisation against fraudulent attack and, as in the case of BWI, if the fraudsters still get through, our compensation covers the costs of the attack (up to £10,000) – a cost that without VoiceSafe the fraud victim would be responsible for paying.
BWI was surprised at how easy it was to become a victim.
Delighted with the service they have received from Southern Communications and the protection offered by VoiceSafe, BWI is keen to share their experience to make other businesses aware of just how easily they can be targeted and the financial implications to an organisation if they are not protected.
